‘Sorry there aren’t enough seats,’ James said, before he moved towards the control panels. ‘I don’t think they designed the bridge with guests in mind.’
The shuttle descended slowly into the far side of the bay. It touched down and clamps in the floor of the bay snapped onto its landing legs.
‘Shuttle secured,’ Kalrea said.
There was a loud bang, from the direction of the cargo bay, of doors locking shut.
‘Where do you want me to head, Gulino?’ James asked.
‘Set a course of 750.85 sectors,’ Gulino replied.
The Aurora turned gracefully and accelerated on its new heading, while Gulino and the others were having a look around the bridge.
‘The layout is very similar to a destroyer,’ Londuo pointed out. ‘Except there would be more consoles around the edge of the room. The captain would sit where that large slab is.’
Antaio pointed to the seatra.
‘What’s that slab for?’ he asked.
‘It’s a seatra,’ James replied.
‘Is it?’ Antaio said with surprise. ‘It’s huge. You could sleep four in a thing that size.’
‘It’s designed to do a bit more than just allowing me to sleep,’ James said cheerfully.
‘It’s amazing,’ Gulino remarked. ‘The whole ship is incredible.’
Londuo was now admiring the magnogenic canvas of the flowers, which Kalrea had now set into the wall, next to the consoles.
‘I love this picture. It looks like someone’s created it. It’s definitely not a hologram.’
‘That’s from Earth,’ James replied. ‘The painter’s name’s at the bottom.’
‘Jane Packard, 2001,’ Londuo read. ‘It reminds me of a flower that my parents once had, which came from Qintaino. I wish I could create something like that.’
She looked at it more closely.
‘It looks like the creator has used some type of magnogenic flux.’
‘It’s called a magnogenic canvas,’ James said, surprised that the name was so similar.
Kira’s head appeared from behind the seatra, curious about the visitors. She looked at them in turn.
Intropa smiled.
‘I wondered what that was for a moment.’
Kira walked over.
‘What lovely coloration your kiol has,’ Londuo said, bending down and stroking her.
James watched Londuo for a moment.
‘Her name’s Kira,’ James said. ‘I found her on the—’
Kalrea deliberately interrupted, ‘There’s a Qintaino destroyer directly ahead.’
‘I hope they know we’re coming,’ James said.
‘Control would have informed them by now,’ Gulino replied.
The monitor illuminated.
Wow! It’s huge.
James looked at the impressive sight of the destroyer.
It looks like it’s seen a lot of action. I wonder how many ships it’s destroyed.
Its long sleek dark-grey hull had lost its original shine and bore the signs of many battles. Upside down, on its front, James read its name: Rellopila.
Kalrea! The name; it’s upside down, he thought, tilting his head.
James, in space there is no upside down. It’s just that the Rellopila’s orientation is not aligned with ours. To them, we would appear to be upside down as well.
Oh.
‘They’re hailing us,’ Kalrea said.
‘Put them through,’ James instructed.
The monitor changed to the captain of the Rellopila. He was a man in his thirties. On his bald head, he was wearing a headset and down the left side of his face was a colourful tattoo of a dragon-like creature.
‘Welcome. I’m Captain Lemix. I’ve been instructed to escort you to our base. We’re just waiting for a shuttle from Angolh. It’s one minute away.’
They like their tattoos, James thought, looking at Captain Lemix and then over to Londuo. She also has a nice tattoo.
‘Lay in a course of 787.90 sectors,’ Captain Lemix instructed one of his command staff nearby.
In the distance, James could just hear the Rellopila’s event horizon drives igniting.
‘Captain Brasdoi, please synchronise control,’ the Captain continued.
Kalrea, what does he mean? James thought.
To enable more than one ship to travel at light speed in close formation, one ship has to take control of the others. This ensures that the ships’ course and speed are identical. If not, they would most certainly collide, with disastrous consequences.
Oh, James thought. Transfer control, then.
Captain Lemix viewed a monitor to his left.
‘Synchronisation confirmed. Prepare for light speed,’ he said into his headset.
Both ships turned slowly and accelerated.
‘Captain Brasdoi, is your ship capable of Q3?’ Captain Lemix asked.
‘No problem. The Aurora will match any speed you wish to travel at,’ James replied smugly.
‘Jump to light speed on my mark,’ Captain Lemix said into his headset. ‘Full power.’
They increased their speed to Q3.1.
Chapter Twelve
The two ships decelerated from light speed upon entering the Wilarn system. The scanners showed a few ships patrolling the rim of the system and then in the distance a cluster of many ships, near a small planet.
James viewed the monitor in amazement, while the Rellopila and Aurora approached the planet, coasting between the many ships.
‘Look at all those ships out there,’ James said.
Londuo moved over to the monitor to have a look.
‘So you’ve never seen anything like this before then, James?’
‘No, Londuo, I haven’t. This last week has been a real eye-opener to me. The things I’ve seen, I… I could never have imagined. I feel very privileged, like I don’t deserve to be here.’
‘Well, in that case, I’d better welcome you to our home, Brinoli,’ she said, pointing to an image of the planet, which was now almost filling the monitor.
‘Brinoli… It looks a beautiful planet.’
‘Oh it is,’ Londuo said and smiled.
James watched as a massive ship came into view on the monitor.
‘That ship’s even bigger than the Rellopila,’ he said to Londuo, before thinking, actually, it looks very similar to a ship I saw in a recording of Qintaino Kalrea showed me.
‘It’s our flag ship, the carrier Lonori,’ Londuo said proudly.
The Lonori was a rounded pear shape, over two and a half kilometres long and almost one kilometre high. Similar to the Rellopila, it showed many scars from previous battles. It had had extensive repairs to its rear, where one of its four event horizon drives and the surrounding hull and decks had been completely torn away.
Whilst James viewed the monitor, two massive doors in the side of the Lonori slid quickly apart, revealing a huge internal docking area. Inside, he could just make out the outline of three small ships.
‘What are they, Londuo?’ he asked, pointing to the smaller ships.
‘Ota class frigates,’ she replied.
James saw a flicker of light, when one of them backed slowly away from its mooring and turned towards the opening. The frigate emerged from the docking area and accelerated away. He read the name Dacota on its side.
Ahead and to the left of the Aurora were two more frigates waiting to enter the Lonori and six destroyers moored together in pairs; four Qinant and two Telecan. The Telecan ships were more cuboid in shape, and their colour was dark-green rather than grey.
The Rellopila and Aurora came to a stop, just to the side of a pair of Qintaino destroyers. James looked at the name of the closest.
‘It’s the Potopila!’ he said in surprise. ‘But I saw it in pieces on the surface of Qintaino…’
Londuo looked more closely at the ship.
‘Don’t worry, you’re not seeing things. That’s the Horopila.’
‘But why does it say Potopila th
en?’ James was confused.
‘We keep the Treitans guessing on how many ships we really have by changing their names. They think we’re still a mighty force.’
‘The logs we got from their computers showed we have two carriers and twenty destroyers. So that’s not true, then?’ James said.
He felt slightly disillusioned.
‘I wish we had. We have the ships you can see here, plus a frigate and four other destroyers on patrol. And now of course, you—’
The captain of the Rellopila appeared on the monitor.
‘This is as far as the Rellopila can go. We’re too big to enter into the planet’s atmosphere. The tracking station will guide you in from here and direct you to the largest landing area.’
The Aurora started down towards the planet. The view of Brinoli was very reminiscent of the Earth. Through the cloud patterns swirling above Brinoli, James could see large dark-green landmasses, broken up by soft-blue oceans. He felt homesick and his mind wandered back to the cottage. He now forgave Carol… Karunet… for living alone and distancing herself from his friends, but the memories of unhappy moments during his childhood were still very much alive…
*****
James was twelve years old and over the last few weeks had met some new friends in the nearby village. He brought Peter and Maria back to the cottage, but Carol was not very happy with him.
James and his friends were walking up the driveway towards the cottage when Carol appeared at an upstairs window.
‘James, I told you never to bring anyone back here!’ Carol said to him sternly.
‘Mum, this is Peter and Maria. I want to show them my computer games.’
‘James, they can’t come in.’
‘But it’s only Peter and Maria!’
‘James, I don’t care who it is.’
‘But mum! Why can’t they play with me on the computer? We won’t make any noise.’
‘Please James, you have to understand.’ Carol said. ‘It’s too dangerous for me.’
‘Your mum’s strange,’ Peter commented.
‘Dad would have let me!’ James shouted up to her.
‘James, that’s not fair. Don’t say those things,’ Carol said with anger in her voice.
‘Come on Maria, let’s go back,’ Peter said.
‘No wait!’ James said sadly. ‘Mum, please!’
Carol disappeared from the window. James turned and watched his friends walking away.
‘Why can’t I have any friends, Mum? I hate you!’ he said, running to the back of the house.
Even now, when he understood his mother’s reasons, he could still feel the hurt of his childish anger and frustration at not being allowed to bring his friends home and having them all think he and his family were weird.
*****
Before James knew it, the Aurora was levelling out over the surface of Brinoli and traversing over an enormous forest that stretched as far as the eye could see. He looked at the monitor to see a small transport ship, which had just overtaken them.
‘Brinoli reminds me of Earth, Londuo,’ James remarked.
‘Earth must also be a very beautiful planet, then,’ she said.
James nodded slowly.
The Aurora followed the path of the transport and slowed when it came to a large break in the trees, where a large rocky chasm crossed through the forest. The Aurora stopped briefly, before beginning its descent towards the largest of four landing areas that were dispersed along the chasm floor.
The small transport that overtook them had just landed alongside two others, in a corner of the same landing area. Next to it, James could see what looked like a small section of a ship, which was being stripped for parts.
James looked at the many brightly coloured buildings that ringed the perimeters of the landing area. Most were pyramid-shaped with thin ribs running from their peaks downwards. These were coloured in red, orange and yellow. Other buildings were cylindrical and towered over one hundred metres into the sky. On the top of some of these were large plasma turrets pointing skywards. He could see that a large crowd of people were gathering near the landing area.
‘Looks like you’ve drawn a bit of a crowd,’ Londuo said cheerfully.
The Aurora hovered and lowered its undercarriage before settling gently onto the ground.
‘I’ll have to escort you to security, James,’ Gulino said. ‘They’ll want to debrief you.’
James nodded. He felt excited, but also apprehensive.
Londuo touched him on the shoulder.
‘Don’t look so worried. You’ll be all right.’
They were all ready to leave and moved into the lift. James turned around and looked back to the bridge, where he noticed Kira looking at him pitifully.
I take it we have food for Kira onboard, Kalrea, James thought. I don’t know how long I’ll be gone.
Leave it to me, Kalrea replied.
*****
James stepped from the Aurora’s pojin lift onto Brinoli and immediately felt a sudden increase in the temperature. He took three slow deep breaths to calm himself, before following Gulino and Londuo, who were looking up at the Aurora’s hull, probably puzzled by its strange surface. A warm breeze blowing against his face carried the distant sound of people chatting. This drew his attention to the perimeter of the landing area, where he could see a lot of people pointing and looking in the direction of the Aurora. As they neared one of the larger buildings four women emerged.
Gulino and his team stopped abruptly and stood to attention, catching James by surprise. He stopped too, but felt very uneasy, wondering what he should do. He looked over to Gulino.
‘Gulino, what’s happening?’ James asked quietly.
He won’t answer, James, the calm voice of Kalrea said in his head. Don’t worry. It’s what’s known as the frecto greeting. An old custom reserved for very special occasions. They’re honouring the Aurora’s return.
Really! What do I do? James thought.
Nothing, just wait.
James studied the women, who were dressed in white hooded robes decorated with large yellow symbols. Their long hair was dyed in shades of blues and greens and formed into a spiral above their heads. In their right hand, each woman was carrying a long sceptre, which had a different symbol embossed halfway along its length. The sceptres were forked at the bottom end and had a pickaxe set at an angle on the top.
James recognised one of the symbols, which appeared to be the same as the one embossed on the telementor. What are the other symbols? James thought.
The four women stopped in front of James and formed a small square. They turned toward each other and lowered their sceptres until they met in the centre of the square.
The nearest sceptre to you has the symbol for life on it; the furthest self-sacrifice. To the left is the heart, and the telementor symbol, which represents the mind, is on the right, Kalrea quickly informed James telepathically.
I also recognise the symbol of life, he thought. It looks the same as the Egyptian symbol, Ankh.
Self-sacrifice was similar to the symbol for life, except the loop of the Ankh was replaced with a star. The heart looked like the outline of the head of a sheep, viewed from the front.
The four women placed their left hands on their right shoulders. Gulino and his team followed suit.
James felt a bit uneasy. What are they doing now? What am I supposed to do, Kalrea?
It’s a greeting like your handshake, she informed him.
James copied the gesture.
‘Welcome to Brinoli, James,’ the nearest woman said, just before they all lowered their arms. ‘Please follow us.’
James looked around once more at Gulino.
‘Aren’t you coming, then?’
Gulino did not reply, but he looked towards the nearest of the four women. The woman raised her sceptre and nodded once.
‘Sorry James, we aren’t normally allowed to say anything during the frecto. It looks like this is where we say goodbye f
or now,’ Gulino said.
James held out his right hand ready to shake Gulino’s, who remembered their meeting on Qintaino and jerkily moved his hand towards James’. They shook hands and said goodbye.
Then James looked at Londuo, who had a serious expression on her face. His eyes were fixed on hers as he wondered why she was looking at him like that.
They both stood staring at each other, until Gulino coughed on purpose to attract Londuo’s attention.
‘Sorry,’ she said. ‘Take care, James! I hope to see you again.’
‘Yes… Yes I hope so too,’ James replied shyly.
He felt a sense of satisfaction. I have to try and meet her again. Find out more about her.
James waved back at them, before disappearing inside the building with the four women. Unfortunately no one responded to his waving because they didn’t seem to understand the gesture, which made him feel slightly embarrassed.
James was led down a long corridor and into a large meeting room which was called the BREN ROOM.
‘Please wait here,’ one of the women instructed.
The door slid shut leaving him all alone.
What now? he asked Kalrea, slowly walking around a large elliptical table in the centre of the room.
I’ll find out. I’ll access the base computer systems, Kalrea said.
A few seconds later she replied, You’re waiting for Milonri. He’s debriefing Gulino and his team, before he speaks to you.
On the walls there were many holographic pictures. To pass the time, James took a lingering look at them. There were deep-space ships for colonisation and exploration, gleaming carriers, light and heavy cruisers, destroyers, frigates and group shots of what was once an impressive fleet. Two large pictures, arranged one above the other, caught his eye: one of a battle carrier, the other of five people in uniforms standing on the bridge of the ship.
At the base of the pictures he read ‘RATSONERB SEKT KUNG AKV GI DVEPAN PE.’
In memory of the flagship, Brenostar, he translated. That must have been an impressive ship, Kalrea, James thought.
It was the largest ever built and, like the Aurora, a prototype, Kalrea said. The cost of the project nearly caused riots on Qintaino, so plans for others were scrapped. She paused. If only they could have foreseen the future.
The Aurora (Aurora Saga, Book 1) Page 13