The Arwen Book one: Defender

by Timothy Callahan

  “Captain, we don’t need to be next to it at all times,” Kel said.

  The engines would use up most of the energy the ship had. But if she let the comet get too far ahead of them and they funneled all power to keep the magnets on, they might not have anything left to get the engines started again. It was a risk she couldn’t take. “I will not shut the engines down. See what you can do to get that strangelet into space. Kel, give him as much help as he needs, but before you do I need you to make sure we have everything ready to abandon ship. We still have a comet to stop, and I will not let the Arwen’s last mission be a failure.”

  Chapter Six

  The thought of losing the Arwen weighed in the back of Marjorie’s mind. She had faith McFerren would find a way to save her ship, but there was still a good chance she could lose her friend. She tried not to think about it. Worrying would do no one any good.

  She walked into the professor’s lab to see him racing from computer to computer, checking reports that came in faster than she could keep up with. He would stop, read over a report, make a few notes, then take a deep breath while closing his eyes. She felt bad bothering him, but she needed a report before she could decide what to do next. Marjorie had to admit it, seeing the professor like this was a nice change of pace. He seemed more focused, more alive than when he wasn’t working. Perhaps he only became an arrogant jerk when he was bored and needed some entertainment. “Professor Ricter, I need to discuss something with you.”

  “Right now?” he asked. “I’m very busy. If you hadn’t put me on such a time restraint, I wouldn’t mind, but—”

  “It’s not me who has you on that restraint, Professor Ricter. We need to talk about a more pressing matter, so please give me a moment.”

  “Fine.” He saved his work and walked over. “What can I do for you, Captain?”

  She did her best to give him a diplomatic smile. “First, tell me what we know about this comet.”

  “I can send you my report in a few hours if you—”

  “Professor Ricter, this is important.”

  “Well,” he sighed, “this is a very unusual comet. It’s about eighty percent less dense than it should be, and it has a very uniform magnetic field.”

  “What is so strange about that?”

  “Most comets don’t. Magnetic ores inside the comet tend to make the field wobble or lumpy. This comet must have a strong, spinning, metal core, maybe iron or nickel, because the field is more like a planet than a comet. I’ve never seen anything like it before. Plus, if it’s hollow like we think, how can it have that kind of core? The two facts contradict each other at the moment.”

  “All interesting mysteries, I’m sure,” she said. “But do we have any ideas on how to destroy it?”

  “I want to send a probe onto its surface and drill down. Since it appears to be hollow, it should have some sort of cave system. If it does, then we can easily plant bombs inside. Even with its mass being less than we thought, it would still take a while to blow it up from the outside.”

  Especially since I can’t use any energy beams, Marjorie thought. “That’s excellent news. If you needed to, could you pack up your stuff and work from a shuttle?”

  He seemed a bit taken aback by the question, and for the first time since she’d known him, he faltered. “Do you want me off the ship that badly?”

  Marjorie suppressed a smile, unsure if he was joking with her. “No, nothing like that. You’ll be hearing an announcement soon. We have an intruder who sabotaged the engines. There is a good chance that in thirty hours the Arwen might be destroyed, and we’ll have to abandon ship. I don’t want to lose any of the information you gather here, and I want you to be able to finish the job.”

  He seemed to consider this news for a moment. “Let me know what shuttle you want me to use. I’ll have Thomas network with it, and we’ll start to backup the information onto it. I think we’ll have most of the primary work done in the next hour or two. I have Fran setting up a probe so we can get a good look at the inside of the comet. Once we have all that information, I’m sure that the shuttle’s sensors, along with a few more sensitive probes, will be all we need.”

  “Thank you, Professor Ricter. Carry on and let me know if you find anything interesting.”

  She walked out of the office and continued toward the bridge. She never had the dilemma of losing her ship weigh so much on her mind as she had now. The chief had given Arwen a death sentence. Twenty-nine hours from now her constant companion of over twenty years would be gone. She ran her hands on the walls feeling the heartbeat of the engines as it vibrated the metal.

  Marjorie walked onto the bridge and looked around. Her crew must have the same thoughts she did: The Arwen would be gone shortly, but we all must complete the final mission. “How close are we to the comet?”

  “We’ll be at the right distance in less than thirty seconds,” her navigator replied.

  “Captain,” her communications officer said, “the Rulla of the other ship wants to talk to you.”

  “Rulla?”

  “I believe it’s a rank, not sure if it’s captain or something higher.”

  “Well, I guess I’ll just have to ask. Put him on my screen.” She sat in her chair and pulled a computer close to her. “Let the Rulla through.”

  The Jerrasic was the second dominant race on Regal. The Regals and the Jerrasic had been at war many times in the past, each trying to gain control of the planet, each trying to ensure it was the dominant race running things. Earth historians always used the analogy of what might have happened on Earth with Homo sapiens and Homo erectus had Homo erectus not have become extinct a hundred thousand years ago.

  A Jerrasic and a Regal looked different enough to be considered different species, yet their similarities made it clear that they had descended from the same ancient race. The alien who appeared on Marjorie’s screen had a long neck and blue skin. Its eyes, however, were much larger than the Regals she had met. They looked back at her with extreme intensity. Beautifully complex tattoos adorned most its face. Golden rings had been pierced into the face and hung down, pulling the skin. The acts of piercing and tattooing must have been painful.

  “Greetings, Captain. I am Rulla Masstic Plooma.”

  She was very impressed at how well the Rulla spoke Common. Each word was carefully pronounced, something that was important since one did not want to make a fool of oneself by using a wrong word. “I am Captain Marjorie Cook. What can we do to assist you?”

  It was hard to tell a smile on the face of a Jerrasic but it seemed that he did smile. “It’s not what you can do for me; it’s what I can do for you. I am here, as a representative of my government, to assist you.”

  She knew what he was trying to do and, thanks to Ling’s report, knew to expect it. Any offer for help had to be refused the first time, and it was normally good practice to refuse anything from the Jerrasic. “Thank you, Rulla, but I believe we can take care of this on our own. You are, of course, welcome to watch, but we won’t be needing any help.”

  He nodded. “As you wish, Captain. We could not help but notice your ship took some damage. How are things holding up there?”

  She had to think carefully about the answer. What did he know? She was still suspicious that he, or his government, might be involved in the attack somehow, but without proof she couldn’t confront him. “We’re holding up well, thank you. We were attacked by the Plick.”

  “Oh, the Plick, they are a pesky bunch,” he said, almost laughing. “What did the Pullma tell you, that they were a harmless religious group?”

  “More or less.”

  “Did they tell you how they were tamed?”

  “I haven’t really read the history of the Plick, so no.”

  He looked sternly into the camera, any trace of humor or friendliness disappeared behind eyes of deep brown. “Many of my people died taming them.”

  She knew it must have been some kind of challenge. Everything the Jerrasic said seemed
to be a challenge of some sort. Was this a time to challenge back, or should she back down? No, she thought, never back down to these guys. “Well, it seems your people, as brave as they were, should have done a better job. Can we rely on your people to help us eliminate this threat?”

  He growled, a sure sign that she had upset him in some way. From what she had read, that might not be a bad thing at this stage. “My people will help as best as they can, but it’s difficult since the Plick are no longer on our soil. We chased them out, and they have never returned.”

  “I see,” Marjorie said. “Well, I’m sure you tried your best. All I can ask is you do not interfere with us. We are trying to save your planet, and I don’t want to fail.”

  “I wouldn’t think about interfering. It’s been an interesting pleasure, Captain; if you need any help, don’t hesitate to contact me.”

  She turned the screen off and took a deep, calming breath. He was just as bad as the professor, she thought.

  ~*~

  The images came back from the probes. Fran carefully looked them over to make sure there weren’t any mistakes. What she was seeing wasn’t possible.

  The comet was hollow, but not because of any volcanic or other natural activity. She carefully marked the decks and hallways she found in the image. The magnetic field, too uniform and smooth, suddenly made sense when she was able to trace out the large generator in the center. She couldn’t make out minute details, but what she did see led her to only one conclusion. This wasn’t a comet. It was spaceship.

  It was too incredible to believe when she first saw the images. She had the probe run a few more scans just to be sure, and each one produced the same images. Fran gathered her computer and walked out of her small office.

  Professor Ricter was an ass, she knew, but he was also brilliant. He would look at the images with a critical, scientific eye and come to the same conclusion she did. Not too many people made Fran nervous, but after spending three weeks together, it made her stomach do flip flops whenever she needed to talk.

  Poor Thomas wasn’t doing much better. He was shy and meek to begin with. She did her best to protect him but knew he’d have to fight his own battles. And besides, she didn’t owe him anything. “Professor Ricter, I have the probe readings. You really need to take a look at them now.”

  He seemed annoyed when he had to look away from the report he was writing. “What can be so important that you couldn’t just send these to me to look at?”

  “Take a look and you’ll see.”

  He snatched the computer out of her hand and scrolled through the images. She watched with a strange satisfaction as looks of confusion crossed his normally confident face. “What are these?”

  “Those are the images the probe took.”

  “Were the probes set correctly?”

  “I checked them three times just to be sure. What do you think?”

  A smile almost formed on his face. “I think I’m going to have to have another one of my fascinating conversations with Captain Cook.”

  Chapter Seven

  Captain Cook sat down at the head of the conference room table. Kel and Ricter sat across from her with Fran and Thomas behind them. On a small monitor was Ling Mia, with Blueic on another.

  “Professor Ricter,” Marjorie said, “are you telling me this is a spaceship?”

  “That is correct, Captain,” he replied, looking over at his assistant. “Doctor Mercury ran the scans at least a dozen times, and there is no doubt in my mind this is a spaceship.”

  “That’s incredible,” Ling said. “What are we going to do?”

  “Well, the first thing is to try and establish contact with them,” Marjorie said. “Then, if we can’t or if the ship is empty, we can either destroy it or try to find a way to pilot it around the planet.”

  “Captain Cook, will you need a translator?” Ling asked.

  She hadn’t thought about it until now. She might need one and, from what Marjorie had read, Ling was a good one. “I think that we might. I’ll keep you on call in case we need you.”

  “Thank you, Captain. This could be a chance of a lifetime, and I don’t want to miss it. I’ve never been part of a first contact mission before.”

  “Well,” Marjorie said, “first contact missions can be very rewarding if done right, and I plan on doing this one right.”

  “That is good to hear, Captain,” Blueic said. “But we would be interested in knowing what you plan on doing if this comet does not want to move or its inhabitants are not friendly.”

  “My mission is to stop it from destroying your world, and I plan on doing that.”

  “That is good to hear, Captain.”

  “Captain Cook,” Ricter said, “we need to plan a boarding party. The sooner we get over there, the better we can determine what to do. We are not reading any life signs and I bet that the ship is not inhabited.”

  “We can’t know that for sure. Professor Ricter, can you get your team ready to head over there?”

  “Thomas, Fran, and I will be ready.”

  Thomas nodded and looked up at Marjorie. He opened his mouth but did not speak. “Thomas, do you want to tell me something?”

  “Yes, well, sort of. Professor Ricter had me try to calculate where the comet might have come from, so I ran a few simulations. I didn’t think it was important at the time, but now I think it is, and I would like to stay on board to run the simulations again.”

  “Professor, would that be okay?”

  He looked over at the young boy and sighed. “I guess it would be good to have someone on the ship. Thomas, you can stay.”

  “Thank you, sir. I do have some reports if you’d like to hear them.”

  “We’ll need all the information we can get right now. Thomas, what do you have?”

  “Based on the speed and the direction the comet is moving, I figured that it’s been adrift for at least two thousand years and might have originated from a star that went nova around that time. There hasn’t been much study of that nebula, so we don’t know if it had any planets before it went nova, but it is the closest system. There are several other systems that it might have gone through, but they are farther and farther away.”

  “Is there a way to determine how old the ship is so that we can get a better idea of where to look?”

  “Not with the information I have, no. Maybe Professor Ricter and Fran can get more information when they go over there. Otherwise, I’m really just guessing. Sorry.”

  “Thank you, Thomas.” She turned to Kel. “I want you to go over with them.”

  Kel began to say something but Marjorie put her hand up. They had worked together enough to know he would get his say after the meeting. There were some things she did not want to talk about in front of everyone. “Does anyone else have anything to add?”

  They all agreed to end the meeting and filed out of the room. Kel stayed behind, waiting for the monitors to turn off before he spoke. “Captain, I’ve got my hands tied trying to find this intruder and helping figure out how to stop that runaway strangelet. I don’t have the time to babysit the professor.”

  “I don’t want you to stay over there. I just want you to make sure it’s safe for them to work. You can leave as many men there as you feel fit to leave, but I want you to lead it. I know the job will get done if you’re over there.”

  “I appreciate your confidence in me, Captain, but of late I’m not sure it’s deserved.”

  That’s what this was all about, she thought. “Deal with it,” she ordered sternly. “I can’t have my second in command doubting the choices he makes. You’ve never let me down before, and I know you won’t now.”

  ~*~

  It wasn’t until everyone left that the shadow moved. He had worried someone would bump into him in the small room, but no one did. He was safe as long as he did not move. He stood against the wall, invisible, unmoving, watching the people as they talked.

  The one with the gray head and his two coworkers would be t
he first killed. Then the one they called Kel, and finally the captain. He had failed to stop the ship immediately and now could not go back into the accelerator room to finish the job.

  If he couldn’t destroy the ship, he would kill the ship’s crew one by one until they could no longer stop the prophecy from coming true.

  ~*~

  Rulla Plooma watched from his command chair as the images of Blueic and Captain Cook faded. They thought they had a secure channel. They were wrong. The Jerrasic were masters of all kinds of security. There was no system they could not break into, given enough time. The security of the Earth ship was pathetic. A Jerrasic child could have broken into it.

  The message, however, was interesting. The comet wasn’t a comet. It was a spaceship. He wondered how he could use that to his people’s advantage. He needed more information. So far he was sure they hadn’t guessed he’d listened in. That gave him a slight advantage over them. “I want all communications of the Earth ship monitored.”

  His crew all sat below him in his command chair. The communications officer turned. “Yes, Rulla.”

  Another one of his officers turned to face him. “Rulla, I am detecting a strange reading from the Arwen.”

  “Tell me.”

  “There is a powerful magnetic field deep inside.”

  “Explain what you mean. I do not have time for this if it’s not important.”

  “By keeping the field up, they are draining their battery and will be without power shortly.”

  “I see,” he said, and leaned forward in his chair. There was something the captain wasn’t telling them. Perhaps it was time to test the captain and her crew. “Navigator, make an aggressive move at the ship. If they do anything, hit them with a low power energy beam.”

  ~*~

  Marjorie walked onto the bridge just as the red alert sounded. “What happened?”

  “The Jerrasic ship has moved into attack formation,” Kel said, running over to the sensor officer’s chair.