by Gini Koch
Pondered why she felt emboldened enough to take the risk. Didn’t have to ponder too long. Sandy had pulled us out of warp to solve their little problem. That was definitely not in the Superconsciousness Society Rulebook. Meaning that he’d broken said rules. And that meant that maybe Naomi could break them, too. Or else, at the least, Naomi felt that the risks of being this overt were well worth whatever reward she expected from all of us on the ship. And that she expected us to do something was quite clear.
Okay, fine. So, why weren’t we hurtling toward Ixtha again? Mother seemed certain that we were not, and I had to trust her on that. Why send us elsewhere, if the entire goal was to get us to Ixtha to solve her situation?
The only answer I could come up with was that something else was going on wherever we were headed. If so, the situation couldn’t be that old, because if we’d been needed at this other place, then why not set Mother’s original coordinates for what I was now going to consider Stop Two on the Galaxy Cruise?
Decided to table why Naomi had suggested the passenger list she had for a later time when we might be flying under our own control. But a Space Family Reunion did seem possible. Of course, if so, then she’d left her parents, Stanley and Erika Gower, on Earth, along with Alfred and Lucinda.
Of course, that would likely be so that we’d have two out of the three guys who forged the first relationship with the U.S. government still on Earth, supporting Mom and ensuring that A-C Bases weren’t taken over by our enemies. And, as a superconsciousness, she could see them any time. All the time, really. And I didn’t expect her to show up visually to anyone, other than possibly me or Jamie, aka the only two on this Earth who knew she was still alive.
So, I had it figured out. Probably. Maybe. Hopefully.
But even if I was right, this information did me no good, because I couldn’t tell anyone else. Meaning I was going to have to lead them around to the idea that “someone” wanted us helping out again, without mentioning Naomi. Or Algar. Piece of cake. Wished I had some cake.
“I wish I had some cake.”
The guys all stared at me. “I’d rather not try to eat right now,” Tim said. “The pressure and all. Besides, it’s not good to eat at your workspace. At least so I’m told.”
“Oh, I know. I mean later.”
“If we get a later,” Walker muttered.
“Oh, we will. I really hope there’s cake wherever we’re going.”
“Kitty,” Jeff said carefully, “baby, are you feeling okay?”
“Sure. Why?”
“Because you were uncharacteristically silent for longer than any of us are used to,” Tito replied, clearly speaking for everyone. “And the first thing you said when you stopped being silent was that you wanted cake. As your physician, I’m a little concerned.”
“Everyone’s a critic. I’m just hungry. But I think we’re heading to help someone somewhere.”
“What brought you to that conclusion?” Hughes asked.
“I think that’s what this trip is about.”
“So far, yes, it seems that way,” Jeff said. “However, unless you know for sure, I think we need to be prepared to enter hostile territory.”
“Do you think it’s ACE?” Tim asked.
“No, I don’t. ACE would tell us, not just fling us.”
“I agree,” Jeff said. “But are we sure this wasn’t internal sabotage of some kind?”
“Positive.” Well, if we defined “internal” to mean someone physically on board. And, I was absolutely doing so for this example. “Sandy pulled us out of warp. Who’s to say that another one of his brethren from another nebula didn’t see this and go, ‘Wow, what a great idea, I’m gonna do that!’ and then, you know, immediately do it.”
“Kitty has a point,” Hughes said. “And she’s usually right, so I say we roll with it.”
“Though I also agree with Jeff,” Walker added. “We should still be ready to shoot first and ask questions later, just in case.”
“The pressure should be reducing,” Mother shared.
“I’m sure I could have taken an hour more of it, easy,” Tim said.
“Careful what you say.” Hughes chuckled. “Whoever’s really driving might take you up on it.”
Sure enough, breathing was easy again. “What do you need us to do, Mother?” I still had no idea what my role really was, other than to talk. I was good with talking, so we were okay there.
“Nothing. At the moment. However, I recommend you stay at stations, just in case.”
Realized something. Mother—who was supposedly linked to all of us mentally and certainly had been before—didn’t seem to have heard a single thought I’d had. Interesting. Meaning it was likely that Algar was shielding my thoughts. Presumably to protect Naomi.
In some ways that made sense—I doubted that he wanted Gower, Abigail, or Chuckie losing it should Mother casually mention that I knew Naomi was alive. But that probably wasn’t all of it. But whatever the rest was, I’d find out later, because I didn’t have enough intel to determine it at this precise time.
Chuckie and Reader came onto the command deck. “We figured we could unstrap,” Reader said by way of explanation. “Drax and the hackers are going to see if they can figure out what’s going on.”
“They’re not traitors,” Chuckie said to Jeff. “So if you were worried that they did something intentionally, I can guarantee they didn’t.”
“I already covered that. Just so you know.” Hey, I had, might as well get credit for it.
“Yes, Kitty did support them, but it’s good to know that you have no worries about their loyalties, too,” Jeff replied. “But that still leaves us going across the galaxy to who knows where, due to who knows what or who. Any ideas, Chuck? I’m open to even the craziest ones.”
“That’s your wife’s bailiwick,” Chuckie said with a grin for me.
“All I’ve got is the firm belief that we’re going to be handling another problem whenever we get to wherever we’re going. Probably thanks to another superconsciousness of some kind. They seem to like being bossy. Speaking of bossy, where’s Mossy?”
“With Drax,” Reader replied. “Until the ship’s under control, Drax needs Mossy.”
“Good thing he snuck on board, then.”
“Speaking of those on board who weren’t supposed to be, the nonessential personnel are whining that they haven’t gotten to do anything.” Chuckie laughed. “And that’s more from the adults than the kids.”
“Mother, are we safe to leave the command deck? We do have position replacements who can cover. All of whom are better trained for this than me, Jeff, and Tito, by the way.” Wondered what she was going to say to this. Prior to our stop at Nazez the answer would have been no.
“No,” Mother said, as one of the lights on my control panel started blinking like crazy.
“Um, why not?”
“You need to answer the incoming transmission,” Mother replied. “It’s a distress call.”
CHAPTER 48
WE ALL STARED AT EACH OTHER. “Um, excuse me?” I said finally. Not the best comeback, but it did the job.
“We are receiving an incoming transmission. It’s going out over emergency channels.”
“Space has emergency channels? Seriously, I learn something new every day.”
“In a sense,” Mother said. “Please answer the call for help. I am trying to not become a HAL but the longer you delay, the more difficult it becomes to not take over.”
“Drax needs to work on that,” Reader said to Chuckie, who nodded.
“Worry about it later,” Jeff said. “Right now, there are people out there who need help.”
“Any idea where this is originating?” Cleared my throat, just in case.
“None. The signal is faint, however.”
“Should I take this alone or put it on
speaker to the command deck?”
“I will ensure that the call is live to this section of the ship only.”
“Works for me.” Pushed the button down. “Hello, this is the Distant Voyager. How can we help you?”
There was garbled sound that sounded like bird caws and shrieks.
“I’m sorry. Please keep on speaking. Our Universal Translator will catch up eventually. We hope.”
Now it sounded like caterwauling. I should know—I sounded like this most times when Jeff and I did the deed. Which we had not done in, by my count, ages.
Jeff heaved a sigh. “Yeah, I know, baby.”
“Focus, you two,” Chuckie said. “And we all know you, so we know what the two of you are whining about.”
“Haters.”
Now we were getting barking. This was officially getting weird.
Still, tried to carry on. “You’re speaking with the command crew of the Distant Voyager. We’re from a planet called Earth, which is in one of the arms of the Milky Way galaxy. We’re far out there, and we used to think we were in the boondocks but we’re discovering that we’re not nearly as alone as we’d suspected. No idea where you’re at, because we don’t know where we are. Long story that I figure you actually can’t understand yet. We have some folks from other planets on board, too. This is a longwinded way of saying that you’re still not coming through intelligibly for us. Most of us don’t speak whatever animal dialects you’re trying. Go for your nearest Naked Ape language.”
There was silence. Then garbled noises that might have been pig snorting and might not have been. It was really hard to tell.
“We need Wruck here, pronto,” Jeff said.
“Hailing him now,” Mother replied.
“Maybe we need to talk more,” I suggested.
“That’s one of your areas of expertise,” Reader said, managing to keep a straight face. “And you’ve already done a bang-up job of it. So I say go for it, girlfriend.”
Wruck arrived. Chuckie filled him in on what was going on.
“Hilarious. Whoever’s on the other line, say the same garbled word or sound or whatever twice for yes and once for no. Got it?”
Two garbled noised that sounded alike came at me. No longer sounded like animal calls. So there was that. Looked to Wruck. Who shook his head.
“Awesome. Are you in danger?”
Two more garbled noises.
“Is the danger life-threatening?”
Two more garbled noises.
“Dang. Okay, do you know where in the galaxy you are?” If they could give us coordinates, surely we could figure them out.
One garbled noise. A pause. Then two garbled noises. “Gotcha, you’re not sure. Okay, um . . .” Looked at the guys. “I have no idea what else to ask in order to determine where in the galaxy they are. We have no idea where we are. We aren’t communicating clearly in this way. We have no idea what they want or how to figure out what they want or need, let along what we can do about it.”
“You can come and get us off of the rock we’re stranded on!” The voice sounded male and stressed. Not a surprise on the stressed.
“Well, it’s nice of the Universal Translator to finally kick in. How long were you able to understand me?”
“After you tried to tell us where you were from. You talked enough that we could get your language.”
“Um, don’t take this question the wrong way, but are you all animals there? Fur, feathers, claws, beaks, and whatnot?”
“No. I think we’re Naked Apes like you, at least if we understand the reference. We’re from a solar system filled with planets, all of which are animal-based.”
“Sounds like Alpha Centauri,” Chuckie said.
“Don’t know what or where that is,” whoever we were talking to said.
“How far from the galaxy’s core are you?” Chuckie asked.
“Far.”
“Earth is about twenty-six thousand light-years away from the core,” Chuckie said patiently. “How far is your star?”
There was silence for a few long moments. “We think we understand the unit of measurement. Our star is about thirty thousand light years from the core. But we’re not on our star. We’re farther than that.”
“Signal is getting stronger,” Mother said.
“You think this is who we’re being sent to help?” Tim asked.
“Maybe,” Chuckie said. “Are you on the galactic disk or the galactic halo?”
More silence for a few seconds. “We think we’re in the halo. Our home planet is on the disk. Again, we think, if we’re understanding you correctly.”
“Earth is on the disk, in one of the spiral arms.” Chuckie rubbed the back of his neck. “Mother, are you able to determine where we are?”
“How is it you don’t know?” the voice on the other end asked, sounding like he thought he’d just realized that instead of finding the A-Team he’d landed the Keystone Kops.
“It’s been a long day. Also, as a suggestion, don’t be snippy with the people who are trying to help you, it’s bad form. Look, what’s your name?”
“And the name of your home planet and its location,” Chuckie added quickly. “We need something to work with.”
“Fine. My name is Wheatles Kreaving, on the space vessel Eknara, from the planet Ignotforsta.”
“Um, excuse me. I’m not sure that our translator is giving us this right. Your name is Wheatles Kreaving? From the planet Ignotforsta? And your ship is named the Eknara?” The ship’s name wasn’t my issue. The other names were. The Inner Hyena wanted to break free in the worst way.
“Yes, you pronounced everything perfectly.”
“Oh. Um. Good.” Truly, the galaxy was a place of wonder and bizarre names. Then again, maybe Kitty sounded weird to someone named Wheatles.
“Our home planet’s coordinates are three-zero-two by eight-seven-seven by five-four-nine.”
We all looked at Chuckie and Wruck. Who both shook their heads. “What does your planet consider zero?” Chuckie asked. “And we need to know which number equals time.”
“The Galactic Core, and we don’t have a time measurement. But it doesn’t matter because we’re not there. We were hit by a neutron wave—”
“A what?” Chuckie interrupted.
“A neutron wave. It’s created when a star dies.”
We all looked at Wruck. “It’s another term for what Earth scientists call a supernova remnant,” he said. “It’s more accurate term. And there are different kinds of these waves.” He looked like he was thinking about something, but he didn’t say anything else.
“It’s a big old galaxy, isn’t it? So, Wheatles, what star died?” Gave it no more than five minutes before I was calling this guy Wheaties. At least in my mind. Probably aloud, too.
“No idea. The waves radiate out. We might not have had a problem, but we were near a dark nebula which blocked the wave’s readings and weren’t able to adjust our course in time. We were hit and sent tumbling. We have no idea where we are now because of that. Our ship is damaged, as well, so we can’t leave.”
“Are you in an uninhabited area?” Chuckie asked.
“No, we’re on a planet, which is one of several. All of them are inhabited. The inhabitants aren’t the problem. They might even be able to help us fix our ship—in about a thousand years or so. They’re all in a primitive state.” More garbled word. “Stone age for you. We think.”
“Are they using fire and tools?” Chuckie asked. “Metals?”
“Yes, doing metalwork. They have fire, weapons and shelters, clothing that’s more than skins or leaves.”
“Bronze Age, more likely, then, at least in terms of Earth’s progression.” Chuckie shook his head. “Yeah, they’re unlikely to be able to help, though.”
“Okay, so, still doesn’t sound like a re
ason to be freaking out.” Said because Kreaving sounded really stressed. Wheaties Craving. Considered this nickname and decided I was not going to share that with anyone anytime soon, since I didn’t need the derision. Plus, it was unlikely that we had Wheaties on board. At least until we rescued this guy.
“Yeah, that wouldn’t be,” Kreaving agreed. “However, there’s something wrong with their sun. Our surveying and scientific equipment is working and we’ve determined what’s wrong.”
“And that is?” Chuckie asked.
“Their sun was hit with something. It came along with us, via the neutron wave. And now their sun is unstable and looks ready to go nova. In a very short time from now. Not only are we here, but there are seven inhabited planets that we can determine are teeming with life, and none of that life is more advanced than that of the planet we’re on. We’re all going to die, and soon, unless someone can help us.”
“Transmission is starting to weaken,” Mother said.
“Wheatles, give us everything you have about where you are,” I said urgently. “And do it fast. We have no idea where we’re headed either, but I promise you, we will find you. And we’ll find you before it’s too late.”
“We think we’re still in the area of the outer arm where our planet is, but we’re not sure—the damage to our ship means that we can’t be sure how far we traveled.” He faded out.
“Wheatles! Keep trying!”
“We were going to examine a pulsar that appears to have several planets orbiting it.” His voice was fainter. “We were trying to discover if those planets had life or not.”
“Do you know how long the pulses last or how long in between pulses?” Chuckie asked.
“Yes,” Kreaving said. But it was hard to hear him due to static. “. . . weeks . . . help . . .”
The line went dead. We were all quiet. Broke the silence. “I don’t care what else we supposedly have to do. We are finding that solar system and we’re saving it. Period. I don’t know how, but we’re not letting Wheatles, his crew, or all the bronze- and possibly stone-age people in that system die.”