By this time, the end of the day had come and they started shutting everything down. They left the space ship and Ron, Tik and Gus had a lively thought conversation about what they had accomplished that day. When they got back to their cell, all three of them redoubled their efforts to learn their assigned tasks. Ron felt that he was more at ease today with the test because he had a little more pilot knowledge. They had hope again.
They ran tests for the next two weeks and were feeling very confident that the ship could be flown. There were things that needed to be fixed but for the most part, systems were still functional. They were cautiously dribbling bits and pieces of information to the Bugs. They let enough information out to show they were making progress but not enough to make the Bugs want to return to the ship. While Tik ran tests, Kota started showing Ron how to fly the space ship. Between the night studies and Kota's teaching, Ron was getting a cram course in piloting.
Over the next several months, Tik started developing a list of things that had to be fixed. Kota started using the ship as a simulator to give Ron a hands-on feel for flying. It was close to the real thing but only flying would really improve skills. At first, Gus just stood by ready to dump fuel but he finally went back to work. Periodically, he would add fuel to the old space ship. He and Tik worked out a system where he almost doubled the amount of fuel he put in. Tik set the computer to show only two days or less of fuel if anyone but the conspirators checked. They watched the fuel slowly increase but it wasn't enough to fly them anywhere.
Ron was getting better as a pilot and finally could do some other tasks he needed to do. His knowledge and understanding of the Alcantaran language had greatly improved. He was searching the ancient ship's computer about the rockets one day when he found out what they were used for. He stared at the screen for a long time, not believing what he was seeing. The doors on the side of the cowling that he and Gus had seen, swung open and would actually catch or launch the rockets. When the doors closed, they automatically turned the rockets to empty fuel into the space ship's fuel tanks. What a great idea. The rockets were big gas cans and they went to the biggest filling station he had ever seen, a star. No wonder the Bugs wanted to find out how to use the rockets and no wonder they had lost the ones they tried. Their translator was telling them to turn the valves in the wrong direction. This knowledge changed the time it would take them to get ready to escape. He asked Tik to find out the position of the mother ship and feed it into the ancient ship's computer. He told her to keep the position updated regularly. He queried the ancient ship's computer about the proper type of star that would act as the filling station. He started plotting the course of the mother ship to see how close it would come to one of these stars. There was nothing close so he asked the computer to calculate the amount of fuel they would need for different stars and made a mental note of it.
After several months of tests, Ron was afraid the Bugs would soon get tired of the little bits and pieces of information so he announced to everyone that they needed to switch experiments for a while. They needed to see if they could open one of the locked doors. They all went to the cargo bay and picked a door. He had called Gus because he wanted him to be there if they could get it open. Tik checked the files and found that particular door. She set about breaking the code that kept it locked. She found out that each door had a separate code and she would have to break each one. She concentrated on this one.
The other three conspirators stood around the door anxiously waiting to see if Tik could get the door open. The Bugs had tried all sorts of tools, lasers and other cutting methods with no luck opening a single door. Ron and Kota had figured out that the ship put a protective shield on the locked doors. Any energy used to try to open the doors was absorbed by the shield and fed back into the shields energy source. Even the energy from the lights or star light recharged the shield energy source. The more you worked, the stronger the shield became.
Tik worked the computer for a long time, muttering to herself the whole time. She would get excited when she came close to opening the door and then growl and threaten when it didn't come open. Suddenly she jumped up and rushed to the door. She turned the handle and the door came open.
They all stood staring at the room behind the door. This door may have been sealed for over 25,000 years and they were the first to see inside. The room was small -- maybe 10 feet by 10 feet. It had shelves on both sides and across the back. There were various sized boxes and loose jewelry lying on the shelves. Tik slowly walked in and went to one of the lower shelves. She took down one of the boxes and carefully examined it. It was a wooden box that had delicate carvings on the top and sides. It looked like a jungle scene with trees and vines. The vines had small brightly colored flowers at regular intervals along their entire length. There was an inscription that Tik had trouble reading even with the Alcantaran translator. She brought the box out and set it on a table almost covered with scientific equipment. The group gathered around to stare at the beautiful box. Kota tried his translator and found out it was worse than the older Alcantaran translator. Tik took her mini-computer and scanned the inscription in. She instructed it to search the ship's computer to find a translation. The computer answered in just a couple of minutes. The inscription was a poem that told you how to open the box. Tik followed the poem as she touched two red flowers, one blue one, a yellow and then another blue. They all heard a small metallic click and Tik could lift the lid on the box. Inside was an electric-blue crystal carving of a strange six legged animal unlike anything anyone in the group had ever seen. It was sitting on a base that looked like black onyx with pale bands of white running around it. The figure was so realistic that it looked like it could move. Tik carefully took it out of the box. Everyone held their breath, almost afraid that a hard breath would destroy the figure. As Tik was setting the figure on the table, her finger brushed the bottom of the base. When she set the figure on the table, the figure moved. Everybody jumped like they had touched a live electric wire.
Kota asked, "What did you do? Did you push a button or something?"
"I didn't do anything. My finger may have brushed across the bottom," Tik retorted.
Kota looked at Ron and asked, "May I pick it up?"
Ron nodded as he watched Kota gingerly pick up the figure and examine it. Kota turned the figure around and nobody saw anything. He held it up so he could see the bottom but there didn't appear to be anything there either. He saw a small speck and wiped at it with his finger. Since he didn't see anything, he set the figure down on the table again. The figure moved again. Kota picked the figure up again and set it back down on the table. Nothing happened. He picked it up again and held it up to look at the speck. There was nothing there. He rubbed the bottom again and set the figure down. It moved again. This time Kota picked up the figure and rubbed the bottom for about 30 seconds. When he set the figure down it started moving like it was loping across the plains. The group watched spell bound. They couldn't see anything touching the figure when it was moving but it never left the base. When it came to a rest, the figure was resting on the base. Kota very, very gingerly tried to pick up the figure from the base. It was firmly attached. He rubbed the bottom again and set it down. They watched the figure move but still couldn't see anything attaching it to the base. Everyone except Gus had to rub the bottom to see if they could make it move. Gus stated that it was too delicate for his big hands and he would not be responsible for breaking it.
The group played with the figure for almost an hour before they put it back in the box and set the box back in the storage room. Ron picked a bigger box and took it out to the table. He opened the box and pulled out a figure of a multi-hued bird-like creature with its wings spread in flight. This one didn't move but it was beautiful to look at. He replaced it and took the box back in the room. He picked up a large silver bracelet. He felt a strange tingle as he picked it up. There was a battle scene scribed around the whole bracelet. The combatants were strange-looking creatures wieldi
ng strange looking swords. Some had shields and strange-looking clubs. Ron handed the piece to Gus and he jumped as he felt the tingle.
"What in the world did you do to this? I definitely felt a small shock," Gus asked.
Kota answered him, "That bracelet has healing powers for some beings. It will work with your own body to cure many ailments. I've never seen one with scenes like that. We use things like it and those other items as gifts to facilitate permits when we arrive on a planet to trade."
Tik said, "You mean as bribes."
"Well, we tried to say it a little more delicately but, yes, that's what it amounted to. Sometimes a little trinket like that would get us trading days or even weeks before some of our competitors who didn't have anything."
Ron said, "Tik, we need to see if we can get one more door open. I hate to give any of this to the Bugs. I'd rather give up two or three empty rooms just to show them our progress."
Tik went back to work and after more than an hour she had a second door open. Inside were some oddly-shaped tables and chairs. They all agreed to shut the door with the jewelry and figures. The bugs were going to get furniture even though they were sure that it wouldn't fit any of the Bugs.
Tik made sure none of the information about how to open the doors was available to the Bugs. She erased all video of opening the first door and what they had found. As far as the Bugs were concerned, they had only opened the door with the furniture. Ron reported the find to Wurden at the end of the day and he excitedly reported it to the big wig.
The next day the Bugs took over trying to open locked doors on the space ship. Kota was sent back to training and the others returned to their normal jobs. Tik had spy devices set up on the flight deck and saw that none of the Bugs would even come close to it. The Bugs worked for the next three months and didn't get another door open. Ron, Tik and Gus had a lot of discussions about how they were going to get a chance to repair the old ship. Everything they thought of just didn't seem feasible. They continued to study and prepare. Ron had a chance to make a few of the repairs under the guise of testing the systems but the biggest problem was the engines. They needed a new lining in the motor throat. It was very pitted and corroded from many years of use and sitting in space. How could you do that without the Bugs knowing?
Twenty-two months after Ron had been kidnapped; the Bugs turned the ancient space ship back to the trio to uncover more secrets. Kota was still training Bugs and wasn't available to help.
Tik was searching the records in the old ship's computer when she came across the name of the ship. She excitedly called the others into the cockpit and showed it to them. The ship's name was the Galactic Antiquarian. Tik said, "That's sure a mouthful. This ship feels more like an Auntie." That became the name the trio and Kota used after that. Ron informed Wurden of the name the next day but Wurden didn't even care. It didn't make any money for the Bugs. Ron did get permission to do a laser color engraving of the name under the window on the nose of the space craft. When he was done, the trio was really excited about the change. This was really becoming their ship. Then came the opportunity!
Chapter 6
Ron, Tik and Gus were working in Auntie when the alarms sounded. They weren't sure what was happening so Ron quickly ran to the rear door. Wurden gruffly told him to go back to work, since the alarm didn't concern him. But Wurden was shutting doors and sealing things up, which concerned Ron.
Tik in the meantime queried the mother ship computer to find out what was going on. It seems that the Bugs had found a freighter space ship which had been hit by a large meteoroid. The meteoroid had caught the ship off guard and severely damaged the crew compartment, killing most of the crew from the loss of atmosphere. The others had managed to use the escape pods and left the ship abandoned. The Bugs used the Space Naval law and claimed the abandoned wreck as their own. The common courtesy would have been to try to rescue the survivors and then help them with the abandoned ship. The Bugs didn't practice common courtesy; and as soon as they saw what some of the cargo was, they wanted it. The Bugs weren't very moral or sympathetic, just greedy. They were within the letter of the law but it still wasn't ethical.
The freighter was too big to pull into the incoming hangar so they used a tractor beam to grab the ship and hold it just outside the door. They were using fliter, a little flyer that could best be described as a flying wrap-around seat with a large platform on the rear to load cargo on. One person flew the machine and was safely surrounded on three sides by seat. They were safety-belted in; and with the open front, had a good view which allowed easy maneuvering close to cargo and unloading sites. They were highly maneuverable and could quickly haul a pretty good-sized load from the damaged freighter to the mother ship. The fliters had made three trips back to the mother ship when it happened.
The Bug supervisors were directing the kidnapped creatures and robots to unload the fliters and take it to the storage rooms. By the time the third fliter touched down in the hangar, the first supervisor fell over. The supervisor was critically ill and died within an hour. The other supervisors around the cargo started dropping also. By this time, most of the first load was already in the storeroom. The Bugs in there started dropping right and left. The kidnapped creatures didn't seem to be affected so they continued to work. Finally a Bug pushed the panic button and sealed the storeroom, the hangar and that whole section of the ship. All the air vents were sealed and everything was shut down. Any Bugs caught in that section of the ship died. The alarms came on when it sealed everything. Tik watched as the Bugs set up. Decontamination teams suited up and set up a triple-layer sealed entrance. They had to go through two doors to get to the door going into that section of the ship. The Bug team had all sorts of monitors and test equipment to check everything.
When the team reached the hangar, Tik watched closely as they cautiously entered. Soon the reports came back that the cargo was contaminated with a virus that was deadly to the Bugs. The Bugs seemed to know about this virus as if they had seen it before. One of the fliter pilots came back empty and two members of the team went to the freighter. The report came back that the virus had been on the meteoroid and had spread throughout the freighter. All the fliter pilots were in space suits and hadn't been affected. The team called for a decontamination unit to be hooked on to the sealed entrance. Then another triple layer entrance was added beyond that. The pilots were decontaminated and put into isolation until they were given a clean bill of health.
The Bugs were in a conundrum, they wanted that cargo in the worst way but the virus would wipe them out if they couldn't kill the virus. The council went into emergency session to decide what to do. Kota was teaching in pilot class when the alarm went off. He completely lost the attention of the students as they started checking their computers to see what the emergency was. The classroom was just outside the sealed area but once everything was sealed down, the class moved farther away. Kota had his translator on and heard the chatter from the Bugs. He pretended not to know what was going on and asked his students what had happened. The older students weren't going to tell him but finally the youngest in the class explained what had happened. He also explained that the council wanted that cargo very badly.
Kota thought for a little while and then said out loud, "I know how to get that cargo safely on board and to get rid of the virus."
The young student who had told him what was happening asked, "How would you get it on board?"
Kota replied, "The creatures who have been working on the ancient space ship are very resourceful and I have an idea I would need to check with them about. I think the old space ship has a way to bring that cargo into the mother ship."
"How is that?"
"I'd rather not say until I check it out to make sure," Kota answered.
A supervisor Bug came into the room to tell them to go back to work on their lessons. Kota noticed his young pupil took time to have a private conversation with the supervisor before he sat down. Kota went on with his lecture and tri
ed to keep his mind strictly on the school work. He had been wondering what was happening with Auntie and this might be the chance to find out.
In the middle of his class the next day, the big wig Bug and his escort came barging into the classroom. One of the guards beckoned to Kota. Kota followed them out of the classroom.
The big wig didn't mince words as he suddenly asked, "How would you get that cargo into the mother ship?"
Kota was a little surprised at how abrupt the Bug was but he quickly answered, "I would have to check for sure with the other creatures working on the ancient space ship but I think it would be possible to bring the cargo through the ship's shield and remove all of the viruses. By setting up a series of two more shields, you could guarantee that all the viruses were removed. As a quality check, you could have monitors and test equipment set up to scan each item as it came out of the shields. I need to talk to Ron to make sure the shield could be set right. I think he did some tests on letting oxygen atoms in but restricting hydrogen atoms."
"How long would it take to do this?"
"I'm not sure, but it wouldn't make any difference. If you had a tractor beam holding the crippled freighter to the mother ship and you used the freighter's tractor beam to hold too, you could still jump through hyper-space. While you were flying in normal space you could be unloading the cargo. If you wanted to salvage some of the freighter, the same thing would work for that. It might take a year to get everything done; but with a shield dividing the repair hangar, you could even keep up with the repairs," Kota said thoughtfully.
"Whoever was flying out to the freighter wouldn't have too much time to fly loads by the time they went through decontamination everyday."
"Yeah, you're right. I had thought of the pilots just staying on the ancient ship for a week at a time but if the virus is as deadly as my student said, that wouldn't work. Too bad you don't have someone who is immune to the virus that could be the pilot but you would also need someone on the freighter to load the fliters. You could use robots on the mother ship to move things. You would need at least three pilots to really make any headway and if you run shifts, you run a greater risk that decontamination would miss something and infect more of the mother ship," Kota tried to plant a seed but not be too obvious.
Alcantaran 1: Alien Abduction Page 12