The following day, Kamran and Gajra joined Jeff in the task of analysing the plant samples that had been collected so far. Using a bio-scanner, a powerful microscope, and other measuring and analysis equipment.
Gajra was busy checking specimen number 018. While the other two, stood close by and watched what she was doing. They had all agreed that this plant appeared to be a succulent.
Then, John, Peter and Tony walked in to join them.
“Don’t let us stop you,” Traven said, apologising for the interruption. “We’re just interested,”
Gajra, smiled in acceptance, then went on with her work. “Its tubular stems seem to hold water,” she said while peering at it closely through the microscope. So the plant probably draws moisture from the soil, overnight,” she told them. “Ah, yes. Incredible,” she exclaimed. “It isn’t harmful to humans,” she told them pointing to the bio-scanner’s reading. “And, better still, it’s definitely pure enough to ingest,” she added.
Then she shifted her attention to analysing the plants almost round leaves. “Yes,” she said again.
“Yes, what?” Jeff asked, starting to get impatient.
“Well, the leaves. No, the whole plant, is edible, and, looking at the leaves, I think it may be very similar to watercress.
Let’s check a bit more,” she said. Then concentrated her attention on an examination of the plant’s chemical composition.
Meanwhile, Kamran. Looked at her findings, then picked up a piece of the plant and chewed it.
“Yum. A bit mustardy, but nutritionally excellent. I would say you have made a good start on finding edible food on this planet. So, where did you find it?”
“Tommy found it. In fact, from the images of the area that the probes relayed back to us, the plants seem to cover quite a large area, locally. Though it’s more abundant in some places than others.”
“Okay. Let’s move on to this,” Gajra said. “The 019 sample that we’ve already checked. Where did this come from?” she asked.
“It’s dotted around, but mostly in this area here,” Jeff said pointing it out on his monitor.
“Isn’t that where you’re hoping to build Marca, your first town?” she asked, looking at Traven.
“Yes, about there, I think,” he confirmed.
“That’s bad news,” Gajra told him, appearing to be apprehensive about this. “This plant is poisonous to us,” she added.
They paused while Tony checked the screen.
“Well, the area about four kilometres to the left seems to be clear of it,” Tony remarked
“So, could we reduce the chance of contamination, significantly, by moving Marca about five or so kilometres to the left, and well away from that area?” John asked.
“I think that would be wise,” Kamran agreed.
“Yes, and in the meantime we’ll need to develop a potent herbicide, to get rid of it,” Gajra added.
“All we need right, now, is some real meat, to eat,” Henry voiced.
“Yea. We won’t get much meat off those tiny lizards for sure.” Peter put in, and they all laughed at the thought.
The ship's comms link between Acarea and the earth-moving machine suddenly sounded, startling them all.
“I’ll take that,” John quickly stated, and moved over to his control console to pick up the comms handset. “Yes, Nick, what do you want?”
“I think you and Peter should come and see what we’ve hit.”
“What is it? Is it hard rock?”
“No, Captain… It’s metal, and it’s shiny.”
John paused, having realised that Nick had used his title. That could only mean one thing. Trouble.
“Okay, Nick, about twenty minutes.”
“Better bring a radiation meter… Oh, and a couple of high energy weapons.”
“Understood, Nick.”
“We’ll carry on slowly digging around it, just in case.”
“Be careful Nick. We’ll be as quick as we can.”
With that, the call ended.
“I’ll get the high powered rifles,” Peter said having heard the conversation. “I’ll meet you at the Buggy.”
“Bring four of them.”
“Okay.”
Peter hurried off, to collect the Radiation-meter, and the HPR’s, with Joe in tow.
“Do you want one of us to come with you, Captain?” Tommy asked.
“No, you’d better stay here and guard the ship. You’d better get some HPR’s out as well, just in case.”
“Will do,” Tommy replied. Happy to do something relatively easy for a while.
John made his way out to the buggy by the cargo bay’s airlock door. Peter and Joe joined him and they boarded it then started it and set off for the excavation site.
The four-person buggy came to a halt on the brow of the depression. During the past three days, they could see that the earthmover machines, working in their Digger configuration, had excavated a large section of the underground site.
At the extreme end, of this now significant depression, a large silver coloured egg shaped object sat, now fully exposed.
They had already dug deep down around the egg-shaped object and removed the soil close to it. Now, they could see that it appeared more like a sparkling gem sitting on the earth than something made of metal.
The object’s outer skin, or hull, was shiny, and reflected objects, and mounds of earth piled around it. However, they could see that the reflections shown on the object had an eerie purple hue.
“What do you reckon, Joe?” John asked.
“Too small to be a ship. It could be a survival pod. From some disaster in the past, maybe.”
“The Pod, or whatever it is, must have crash landed and caused this depression,” Peter said.
“Yes...” John agreed, then weighed up the situation.
“Right. I personally think this must have happened many years ago. It would undoubtedly have taken at least fifty to a hundred years, for the soil movement to cover the object. Do you agree?”
“I suppose, and if that’s the case, Captain, then we’ll be like primitives, to them,” Peter replied.
“It’s dead this far out,” Joe informed them, as he checked the meter reading. “Just background radiation.”
“Okay, let’s go on down,” Traven ordered.
The buggy leapt forward, they headed down, and into the excavation site then came to a halt, close to Nick’s digger.
As they approached, Nick and Lukas exited the Digger and greeted them.
“We’ve cleared around the thing getting as close as we dare without knowing if it’s radioactive or not,” Nick informed him, sounding worried.
Then Joe walked slowly around the object, checking the radiation levels.
“No, it’s not hot. The highest reading is less than two rem.”
Then Lukas joined in. “Steven bumped it with the Digger, earlier, Captain. Then we suffered a complete power failure. Even the Digger’s power cells stopped working for about five minutes.”
“And now?”
“Everything seems to be back to normal. Except for that,” Lukas said, pointing at the egg-shaped object.
“What do you mean?”
“Well, look at the surface of that thing. I’m sure that crazing effect wasn’t there ten minutes ago.”
Just then, Steven came over, having got out of his digger.
“I’m all for us getting out of here, right now,” he told them.
“Why?”
“Come on, follow me. I want you to see the other side of this egg-shaped thing,” he said and started walking off.
They all followed him, round to the other side.
“Look, there,” he said pointing at the object. “Can you see what I mean?” He asked them.
The five of them peered at the object. “Do you mean the yellowish glow, in this area here?” John asked, pointing at it.
“Yes, exactly,” Steven replied. The rest of them looked more carefully at the object and
realised that, yes, there was definitely a soft yellow glow on that side.
“When I checked it earlier, it felt as if the surface was pulsating, but only slightly,” Steven nervously remarked.
On hearing that, John stepped a little closer and put his hand on the object. At first, it seemed as if nothing was happening.
Then, he realised it was warm, and he could feel a faint vibration. He hurriedly stepped back. The thing was going to do something, soon. He was sure. They weren’t going to like it.
“You three. Get in the diggers and move them away from here, now,” he ordered. “Get them as far away as possible,” he added.
“Come on, Peter, Joe. Let’s go back to the buggy, quickly. We’re not safe here.”
Within eight minutes, the diggers had reached the outer limit of the site, nearly a quarter of a mile away. While the buggy was only just climbing up over the brow of the depression.
They all carried on, with Steven, Nick and Lucas finally stopping the two diggers next to the prefabricated hut they had arranged as a temporary shelter a couple of days ago.
Then waited, while the buggy caught up with them. By the time the other three reached the shelter, they were breathing heavily, and feeling anxious.
Then all of them got out of their vehicles and took cover under the hut’s overhanging roof.
After a few moments, curiosity got the better of them, and all four looked back, to see the shiny oval object slowly rising into the sky.
They saw it pause, for a moment. As if it was taking bearings. Then they were bathed in a greenish light for a split second. The light emitting from the object.
“What the...?”
“Captain, do you think we’ve just been scanned?” Lukas asked as he felt his body tingle.
“I wouldn’t know, Lukas. How could we possibly know what it might feel like?”
The object continued rising until it was just over a kilometre above the planet’s surface. Then, stopped again.
“Now what’s it doing?” Nick queried.
“Probably transmitting,” John answered.
A couple of seconds later, they could see what looked like a black curving slit-like shape, appear in the lower atmosphere. The extreme end of the curve seemed to catch the edge of the object, which caused it to sparkle.
They kept watching, and to their astonishment, the object started falling apart.
Then came a flash, as the object vapourised, in the atmosphere.
“Geeze,” Peter gasped. “Quick, get back under the shelter.”
John saw Nick and Steven run and jump into their Diggers, with Lucas following close behind them. Then close their cab doors, just in time, as a powdery like substance floated to the ground.
This had continued for a good fifteen minutes before Joe was able to check the radiation levels.
“Radiation level still seems okay, Captain.”
“Alright, back to the buggy. Joe, you’d better keep checking as we go back into the site.”
“On it, Captain.”
Once they reached the excavation level, everything seemed exactly as it had been. Except the shiny object was gone.
“Well, there’s nothing we can do about it now, so we just need to keep on working, as we were,” John suggested.
Chapter 34
Distant Menace
Viceroy Verice, Captain of the Star-Destroyer Z183, studied his tactical display.
“Cratic. Where is the survival pod’s beacon located?” He asked, knowing it was sometimes useful to talk aloud instead of communicating mentally.
“We will know that in a moment, Excellency,” his navigation officer replied, his voice sounding slightly shaky.
Viceroy Verice looked at him, his face expressionless. Then announced.
“I’ll be going to my Pod.”
“Yes my lord,” Cratic acknowledged.
The Viceroy then pictured his own Pod in his mind and was instantly standing in it.
The personal Pod, although sparsely fitted out was nevertheless luxurious by Garoden standards. His bed was a rectangular shaped sponge-like object that floated about a foot off the floor. It was situated against the centre-rear of the Pod. However, the bed could automatically adjust its shape and contour as needed to give maximum comfort to the user.
There was also a built-in sanitation cubicle to the left of the room. This automatically provided for all his body’s functional needs. While his Comms and remote command centre which was on the right side of the room, seemed to blend into the wall.
Verice pushed a small platform away from the middle of the room. The platform had no visible signs of support and only floated off to one side where it would remain until needed.
He looked at the blank wall at the front of the pod.
Relax, he thought. Then the wall came alive with gently swirling coloured patterns. While a melody played in the background.
Reflect, he thought, and the area directly in front of him changed to show a shiny surface in which he could now see himself.
He’d been on this vessel nearly a hundred cycles, and, as he looked at himself in this mirror, he was reminded of the fact that the Organic parts of his body had aged considerably.
I’ve been here far too long, he thought to himself.
Viceroy Verice was part bio, part machine, as were most of the upper hierarchy of the Garoden species. He was nearly seven-foot-tall and had smooth grey-pink skin that seemed almost metallic, and, as Garoden’s went he was quite handsome.
Of course, his skin wasn’t metallic. The only major non-Bio parts of him were his heart and respiratory system, which were electro-mechanical.
However, there were several smaller biomechanical parts in his body. Like his specialised eye implant, that enabled him to see in the dark or simply zoom in on an object, by thought alone.
While his Companion brain bio-implant was indispensable, in that it converted a Garoden’s brain signals into actions and commands.
This was what made the Garoden race so devastating in action, and had enabled them to take, and keep control of vast swathes of space. The only drawback with his Companion brain, as far as he could see, was the fact that he had to be either on his ship or, physically on his world, for it to function.
Over aeons of evolution, the Garoden species had virtually lost their tails, with only a tiny stump remaining. Verice had seen his ancestors fossilised skulls many times before, and was pleased that his era had lost their prominent jaw. So now, they looked less like an animal, and more like a well-muscled and efficient Biped killing-machine.
He received a mental request, which brought him back to the here and now.
Yes, officer Cratic, he sent back.
We have the Beacon’s coordinates, your Excellency.
Put them on my remote, he ordered. Then sensed hesitation in Cratic’s actions.
What is your problem?
It is complicated, Excellency.
Bridge. Viceroy Verice mentally commanded and was instantly standing next to his navigation officer.
“So what is it, Cratic?” He asked aloud.
“It’s too far away, Excellency.”
“Why? What do you mean?”
“Look,” Cratic said, pointing at the screen. “Here we are, and over there is the beacon’s origin.”
Viceroy Verice studied the display with the distance and star distribution being clear to see.
“That can’t be possible,” he said at last.
“No, Excellency. I assure you, it is correct.”
“But it’s two thousand one hundred light-years away. How can that be, with no natural wormhole to travel through? Explain.”
“There must have been a wormhole, formerly,” Cratic replied then paused, thinking. “Have we lost a ship recently? Anywhere?”
Viceroy Verice sent a mental command to the comms officer, who in turn sent a request to Garoden Command.
Sent, your Excellency came the confirmation.
“Griken,�
�� Verice called. “Explain how the beacon’s signal has reached us. No answers that I don’t understand,” he snapped at the science officer.
“I’m not sure your, Excellency. However, if one of our ships was drawn into a temporal space-time fold. That could explain its disappearance.”
Cratic thought about it. Then smiled. “Yes. He is right, Excellency. If the fold or wormhole collapsed while the ship was within it… Then, yes. The Pod could have survived if its matrix was running at the time of the fold’s collapse.”
“That doesn't explain how we’ve received the Pod’s signal and data burst.”
“That’s true, Excellency. Two thousand light years are beyond even our capabilities.”
His science officer, Griken, then interrupted. “Your, Excellency. The Star Destroyer Z102 disappeared seven cycles ago. Since then, Garoden Command hasn't received anything from the ship. No signals or other communications.”
“So, Griken. Suppose your theory is correct, there was a temporal space-time fold, and the Z102 was drawn into it. It still doesn’t explain how the Pod managed to transmit. But the ship didn’t.”
His science officer re-checked the data that Garoden Command had sent them.
“This may possibly be the answer, Excellency…. Ah, yes, there it is,” he added. Pointing at the display.
“Come, come. Get on with it.”
“Yes, Excellency… Well, there does seem to have been a fold in the space-time…
And, it would appear to match the timing of the Pod’s data bursts,” he said. Then paused while his display refreshed with new data.
“Yes, it has got to be this, Excellency,” Griken added, as his screen swung around on its own to enable the Viceroy to look at it.
Verice quietly studied Griken’s screen for a moment. He wanted to work out what all the symbols meant without Griken realising his lack of symbol maths.
Acarea. A Triumph or Disaster? (SpaceFed StarShips Series Book 5): A Novel by Gerry A. Saunders (SpaceFed StarShips Trilogy) Page 25