Then, when he had visited the City Marca’s records department on an earlier occasion. He vaguely remembered noticing a single reference to an episode involving something, like a flash. So he decided to tap into a link to City Marca’s records department on Dpav4.
At least, this was something useful that he could do while they waited for the Argonaut. It was possible that the Pavonisens just might have some extra information on the subject by now.
A minute or so later, Marca’s central records department responded, asking him to enter his request on the electronic form attached to the reply, and they would immediately search for the information.
“H’m, they’re efficient,” he muttered to himself. Then completed the request form, and sent it.
He knew roughly when the Acarea had crash-landed on Dpav4. The Solverons had a decent record of the landing. Moreover, there was a reference to it by the DPav4 founders.
He also knew the Solverons had helped the survivors after the ship had crash-landed. Then kept an eye on them over the years. There were also references to some dubious encounters afterwards.
He hadn’t thought anything more about this reference to a flash, until now. However, this episode had been documented by the founders themselves. Therefore, it must be worth the effort for him to try to verify what it referred to, if that was at all possible, he decided.
Of course, the Pavonisens probably wouldn’t know anything about it. Which was strange really, he thought. Even so, it wasn’t that strange, as, until a few years ago the Pavonisens weren’t even aware of their origins and thought the memory core was taboo.
In fact, very few of them seemed to know anything at all about their past, even now. While the ones that did only knew that, they were descendants of the settlers from the old Starship Acarea. What was worse, they only knew this because Andromeda’s crew had been able to tell them.
It was even harder to find anyone that had acknowledged the large statue in the square on the outskirts of City Marca, depicted the Starship Acarea’s Captain and his wife.
That fact alone should have made it clear to them from the beginning, that the ship’s crew and its settlers were their Founders.
Sherman’s comms beeped as a message came in for him. He studied the reply.
Message to Captain Sherman: from CO Forbs: Control Archive Centre: City Marca: 15:00-hours, planet time.
Re your enquiry, relating to object found during excavation.
Insert reads:
The object unearthed at the excavation site by Acarea’s earthmover was ovoid in shape. The workers unintentionally knocked into it. Then it rose into the sky. Paused, for a moment, as if it was taking bearings. Then, bathed them all in a greenish light for a split second. The light, having been emitted from the object, convinced them that it had scanned them. A couple of seconds later, they reported seeing 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. The ribbon then drifted on across the sky and away from them.
For the record. At one end, part of the black ribbon seemed misty. End.
Captain. This is the only information that we have on the subject. It was extracted from the Acarea’s memory core. Should you wish to talk to me. Call: 2367198 Forbs.
Sherman then realised that the black ribbon sounded like the rift they had witnessed earlier, which was from where they believed this object had come. To hear that this was also connected to the flash was even better.
He turned to Science Officer Barlow.
“Barlow, that rift, or ribbon, whatever it’s called. Did it register any other properties on our sensors?”
“Nothing, Captain. The problem is, it did not emit any data that we could use, and, it was difficult to see against a black background.
In fact, if the object hadn’t popped out, we would never have noticed it.”
“True, but did you manage to measure the rift’s forward temporal displacement?”
“Yes, but only because we could also measure a temporal dive, at the other end,” Barlow replied, sounding pleased with himself.
“So, that dive must, therefore, have been linked to somewhere else,” Sherman replied.
“And, to some other time…,” he added.
End of the sample.
Table of Contents
Acarea
About the Author
Dedication.
Other Books by this Author
Content.
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5.
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
A sample from my next book.
Acarea. A Triumph or Disaster? (SpaceFed StarShips Series Book 5): A Novel by Gerry A. Saunders (SpaceFed StarShips Trilogy) Page 28