Tiger- These are the Voyages

by David Smith

  With the Captains permission, they returned for a second mission, and then a third, each time carrying out different experiments but getting no further.

  By the time of the fourth mission, Hollins had been convinced that the planet was safe, and had allowed a few members of the crew to beam down to the strange little world purely to stretch their legs after being cooped up aboard the ship for months.

  Perhaps inevitably, Chief Money had started a sporting competition, which generated considerable excitement and intrigue. His first thought was baseball, but with a horizon that was only thirty metres distant, out-fielders couldn’t see the hitter, which made catching nearly impossible. He eventually settled for a golf tournament. The holes were invariably beyond the horizon of the tiny planetoid, but this simply added new challenges to the ancient game.

  Whilst not wanting to spoil the fun, Dave was forced to intervene and restrict the course to par-three holes: a big hit with a driver could cover most of the planets circumference, threatening the working scientists with unexpected aerial bombardment in the event of a wayward drive.

  The course was made considerably more challenging after he made the mistake of allowing the Marines five hours on the surface to practice their assault techniques. They stopped short of deploying tactical nuclear devices, but added huge amounts of new bunkers by indiscriminate use of conventional weaponry.

  After four days of fruitless effort O’Mara was sat on the Bridge briefing the Captain on her findings to date.

  ‘It’s still a bit of a mystery, sir. Seismographic surveys are throwing up more questions than they answer. We couldn’t make sense of the readings at all in the first instance, but Liuzzi’s come across similar issues with cave systems. The geologists now reckon that the very core of the planet is actually hollow.’

  ‘Hollow?? I thought that was impossible?’

  ‘It is, according to every textbook of geography ever written by anyone anywhere, but that’s the only way we can explain the movement of sound waves through the planetary structure.’

  ‘So how on earth does a hollow planet generate so much gravity?’

  ‘That’s what’s bugging us too sir. We’ve got comprehensive data for the rest of the structure, but it’s mostly regolith. It’s the same dirt and dust that the rest of the solar system is made out of, so our thinking is that this gravity well has trapped a load of rubbish as it’s swept through the system and buried whatever started it all off. In the centre of this dirt-ball is a tiny metal sphere around five metres in diameter filled with a vacuum and possibly something else that must be unbelievably dense.’

  ‘Could we dig down?’

  ‘Not with the kit we’ve got on Tiger, sir. A proper survey vessel might be able to have a stab, but that’s really specialist stuff.’

  ‘So we’re stuck then?’

  She looked terribly disappointed. ‘I suppose. We’ll log what findings we’ve made and mark it down to experience.’

  Dave offered her what consolation he could. ‘Well that’s the nature of exploring, Aisling. You could argue that we’re not here to solve mysteries; we’re only here to find them.’

  She nodded. ‘Sorry, sir, it just irks me when I can’t work out what’s going on. There’s no logical way for a metal sphere like that to exist in nature.’

  ‘What about outside nature?’ asked Dave innocently.

  There was an awkward pause, and Dave could see her have a light-bulb moment. She stood up suddenly, her body frozen while her mind raced away.

  ‘It’s a core . . . ‘ she muttered.

  ‘Sorry?’

  ‘A core. It’s an energy core. We weren’t stood on a planet, we were stood on the wreck of a ship.’

  ‘What?’

  She began pacing up and down, her mind filling in the blanks as she talked to herself. ‘Of course! How did you miss that you numpty??’ It’s crude, but it would work.’

  Dave was completely lost as the conversation moved on without him. ‘What would work?’

  O’Mara seemed to suddenly remember he was there. ‘It’s not a planet. It’s the remains of a ship. If you drop matter onto neutronic material like you find in a neutron star, it releases x-ray energy as the atoms are crushed together until they overcome the strong-nuclear force. With a lump of neutronic matter in an engine you could use any matter as fuel. Bung matter into the core, the protons and electrons are squeezed down into neutrons and you get a load of x-ray and gamma radiation out. The hardest bit would be containing the huge gravitational and magnetic fields inherent in such matter.’

  She was still pacing up and down as her ideas coalesced. ‘That’s what happened here: A ship, powered by a chunk of a neutron star gets damaged in a battle. For whatever reason, the field that contains the neutron material remains active, but the rest of the ship is reduced to a smear of atoms around the containing field, forming a shell a few metres thick. Over the next few hundred years, the huge gravity well sucks in any dust or debris in the vicinity to form a rocky crust over the metal shell! Obvious isn’t it?’

  ‘Um, yes?’ ventured Dave.

  ‘Ah well, that’s made my day!’ smiled O’Mara. ‘Mystery solved and all that. We can go now, sir.’

  Dave sat back as his Science Officer capered off to the turbolift to spread the good news. He recalled the shore-leave parties and instructed Dolplop to set a course for Sigma Epsilon Theta Six Iota D five. Whilst Lieutenant-Commander O’Mara was brilliant but easily distracted, Dave knew that he himself was far less brilliant but also far, far less easily distracted.

  Finding the wreck of a ship that used unknown technology was one thing, but it occurred to him that finding such a ship near a place you’d come to as a potential battle-site spoke of other more worrying mysteries: Mysteries that might be resolved at Sigma Epsilon Theta Six Iota D five.

  Chapter 9: ‘The Old Religion’

  Captains Log: Captain David Hollins

  Star Date 9466.3

  We’ve recorded the peculiar planetoid that we ran across en-route to Sigma Epsilon Theta Six Iota D five and laid a navigational beacon in orbit around it to warn other ships.

  Lieutenant-Commander O’Mara and her team are busily compiling a detailed record of their findings, but I’m focusing on what lies ahead.

  I find the discovery of unknown alien technology quite disturbing: I’ve never heard of anyone managing to harness neutronic material as a power source before and it’s raised a concern that’s now nagging at me. If that race was willing to risk using such a dangerous energy source, what other technological ghosts might be lying in wait for us elsewhere in this star system?

  --------------------

  In stellar terms, their destination was only a short hop from the odd neutronic dirtball they’d found, but it human terms it was hundreds of millions of kilometres.

  As soon as they redirected their sensors towards the planet in question, it was immediately apparent that there was something wrong. Every sensor was inundated with a variety of high-energy radiations and the ether seemed to be sizzling and seething around them as they approached the ruined world.

  The science team were buzzing with excitement, but the tactical officer was wary. As they got closer to the planet, it was clear that O’Mara’s assumption about this being the site of a battle was correct.

  ASBeau sat at the back of the Bridge at one of the tactical consoles and could barely believe his eyes as the ships tactical sensors found wreck after wreck.

  ‘It’s a ship’s graveyard sir. Still gathering data, but there must be a hundred wrecks or parts of wrecks scattered in various orbits around the gas giant planet and the moon itself.’

  Crash immediately slowed the ship to a tiny fraction of light speed, easing the ship forward slowly. ‘Raising shields and putting full power to navigational deflector, sir.’

  Dave watched nervously as ASBeau popped the data up onto the main screen. Dozens upon dozens of wrecks, all of them smashed beyond recognition.

  D
ave wanted to know more and turned to his Science Officer. ‘O’Mara . . . ‘

  His Science Officer was a little scatty at time, but when she on it she was as sharp as they came. ‘Already on it sir. Scanning the wrecks.’

  Dave waited patiently, knowing there was so much debris that it might be hard to collect anything useful. The ship’s movements became erratic as Crash adjusted course to avoid the large pieces of debris, and there was an occasional ‘clang’ as something large enough to push through the ship’s shields hit the hull.

  O’Mara quickly confirmed Dave’s thinking. ‘We’re not going to get much useful data quickly. From a spectroscopic analysis of the hulls I’d estimate the ships are the products of at least three different space-faring races, but they’re so badly trashed, it’ll take a while to sort out definitively what belonged to whom.’

  ‘Could we identify what races they belonged to?’

  ‘Unlikely, but I’d bet you a pound to a penny that there’s someone aboard this ship who could.’

  Dave considered this. ‘Professor Hubert?’

  O’Mara nodded without taking her eyes from the data streaming in. ‘He’s been drifting around Treaty Space for over three years and from what Lieutenant Selassie tells me, he wouldn’t have been here that long without taking an interest in big battles like what’s happened here.’

  Manny Vainatolo had joined them on the Bridge to offer what he knew about the system, but his knowledge was much broader than that. ‘The whole of Treaty Space is littered with battle-sites like this. You could probably get an idea of the order things happened in from the degree of damage inflicted at each site.’

  Dave nodded. ‘I guess this must have been one of the later battles.’

  Manny laughed ‘Hell no! I don’t know what the war was about . . . I’m not convinced even the survivors know . . . but it was unlike anything the Federation has ever seen. This looks like just a skirmish to me. I’m no expert on such things I but I reckon there’s a half a dozen systems where whole planets have literally been reduced to rubble.’

  ‘WHAT??’

  ‘Yeah, man, I kid you not. There are a lot of systems with asteroids gathered in a localised area, rather than being spread out in a belt. People tell me that can only happen if the planetoid has broken up recently in geological terms. There are other systems that are so badly damaged I can’t even begin to guess what happened there.’

  ‘So you think that the lack of development in this area is because the war destroyed much of the existing civilisation?’

  Manny nodded. ‘If I had a ship, I’d bet her on that. Everything I’ve seen in this sector speaks of big, big trouble.’

  O’Mara was busily poring over the data coming in, but could still add to the conversation. ‘I’ve had the team talk to Manny to give us some clues as to where we should explore. It’s early doors yet, but we reckon Manny has already encountered a half dozen of the races involved.’

  Manny scratched his head. ‘What I know about each race is a bit sketchy. From what I can gather, there were about ten to fifteen species in this region, all pretty much on a par with each other, but one of them gained a sudden technological edge and started to conquer the others. After a couple of successes, the remaining species united and the war started.’

  ‘And you know the participating races in this war?’

  ‘Not all of them. Some of them still talk about the war though, with varying degrees of sadness and bitterness. From what I’ve heard the Guara led the alliance. They’re a humanoid race from the Sigma Epsilon Kappa region. I don’t know where their home world is, but they’ve got a half dozen small scattered colonies dotted around that area.’

  ‘Are they a numerous race?’

  ‘No. Well not anymore. They’re quite thin on the ground these days, but the older ones all go on about the glory days and how their fleet was so vast it used to blot out the stars. The Guara seem to align themselves in a clan structure. They make a big deal of running into others of their particular clan but tend to be quite stand-offish in dealing with other clans even though they’re the same species.’

  O’Mara was getting visibly excited talking about the mysterious history of the sector. ‘Have any of the races recovered from the war?’

  Manny scratched his chin. ‘The Kala seem to be doing ok, but I’m only guessing really. They’re insectoids and aren’t much interested in dealing with anyone other than themselves. They’re not threatening of anything, they just don’t seem interested.’

  ‘But they’re still a strong species?’ asked O’Mara.

  ‘I suppose: I happened across one of their hive worlds a couple of years back. They politely shifted me along, but not before I got a look at the world. It was teeming, man! Only about the size of earth, but my sensors showed about fifty billion of them on that one world. Members of other species tell me they’ve got dozens of hive worlds and dozens of other, smaller, more remote colonies.’

  Dave nodded. ‘So who’s your main source of knowledge?’

  ‘The Jevean. They’re drifters after my own heart. They tell me their home world was completely destroyed by some kind of uber-weapon and the few survivors have never had the heart to start over. They seem resigned to gradually dying out, but they’re more than happy to talk about the war all day. Weirdest thing about them is that they always refer to themselves in the past tense, as if they’re already extinct, or are just ghosts.’

  Being more pragmatic, Dave asked more direct question. ‘Are there any we should avoid?’

  Manny nodded. ‘Hell, yeah! The Rayal are huge bear-like things and they guard their home worlds in the Sigma Epsilon Lambda area really, really fiercely. First time I strayed into that territory I was lucky to get out, but once I was out they weren’t interested at all. I’ve had no dealings with the Rayal at all: They keep themselves to themselves, but if you stray into their patch, you’re in real trouble.’

  Dave nodded, which prompted Manny to continue. ‘The Ma’Ka are dangerous too. They’re lizard types and are open to trading but I can’t get my head around them. You say something in complete innocence and it’s like the biggest insult ever and they want your head on a plate. They’re very defensive too, but that may be because they’re neighbours to the Rayal. I hear they often fight skirmishes along that border.’

  Dave made a mental note to leave the Lambda systems until later in the mission. ‘What about the other side in the war?’

  Manny shrugged. ‘From what I can gather they were mysterious to start with and are even less well known now. The Jevean tell me that no-one even knew where their home world was until right at the end of the war and none of the Alliance even knew what their enemy called themselves. Most of the Alliance races had a name for them along the lines of the Wraiths or the Evil Spirits.’

  Dave felt suddenly uncomfortable but shook the feeling off. ‘So what happened to them?’

  Manny shrugged again. ‘Dunno, man. The Jevean said their entire home world disappeared never to be seen again, but I always figured that was just their way of glossing over the fact that the Alliance indulged in a genocide.’

  ‘So there’s no trace of these “Wraiths”?’

  ‘Not directly. Some of their tech is still lying around, but the Alliance races treat it like it’s toxic. None of them appear to have seen it as a way to get ahead militarily, even though it looks like the Wraith technology was far in advance of the Alliances.’

  Dave thought about the Alexander Foundation, a front for armaments conglomerates, funding an advanced exploration yacht crewed by a beautiful archaeologist.

  Manny didn’t notice that Dave was distracted and carried on. ‘The Wraiths had a couple of slave races that rebelled when they got the chance, but they’re all extinct or as near to it as makes no difference. The only thing they really left behind are the Implements.’

  ‘The what?’ asked O’Mara.

  ‘The Implements. It seems that realising they couldn’t trust slave races, the Wraiths
decided to create their own subservient species. They took genes from virtually every race in the sector and used them to create a genetic uber-race. The Implements are a race of genetically identical humanoids still millions strong, spread throughout the sector. They’re about as tough as you can make a biological body, but they’re almost inert.’

  ‘How do you mean?’

  ‘It’s hard to explain. I guess they were designed to obey the Wraiths, but without them to give direction, the Implements are just . . . well . . . waiting.’

  ‘Waiting?’

  ‘Yeah. They feed themselves, they breed, all that stuff, but that’s it. They trade only what they need to, and show no interest in exploration or technological advancement or even anything like art or culture. It’s like they’ve been on pause for a thousand years. They’re just waiting.’

  ‘For what?’ asked Dave.

  O’Mara understood and nodded sagely. ‘For their masters to return.’

  --------------------

  Dave found Professor Hubert skulking in the Forward Observation Lounge on Deck 6. He was unshaven and looked tatty and dirty, even though he had the run of the ships excellent facilities. As always he was sat alone although, as always, he had a bottle of red wine to keep him company.

  Even before Dave could ask if he’d mind speaking to him, the Professor brusquely asked ‘What do you want?’

  Dave really didn’t like the Professor, but they were stuck with him until the next time they visited Hole. He harboured a suspicion that the only way he’d get something out of the professor would be to wrestle him to the ground and stick two fingers down his throat, but he decided to try anyway.

  ‘Lieutenant Selassie tells me you’re a renowned archaeologist.’

  ‘So?’ remarked the Professor, as if this was merely stating the obvious.

  Dave was hoping the Professor might be a little more forth-coming, but the disdain in his reply made it obvious that the professor still hadn’t forgiven him for allowing Shaw to steal his precious data. However, he had nothing to lose and asked the question. ‘As we’re exploring planets that are unknown to us, I was hoping you might give us the benefit of any knowledge and experience . . . ‘