by JK Stone
Still, there was no response, so Jason went to the passage to the engine room and thought Entry, but nothing happened this time.
Jason put his hand on the wall and as he did an arc of energy passed between him and the wall.
The passage opened and he went into the inner corridor and he put his hand on the wall to enter the engine room. The engine was dead silent, not a single light flickering anywhere. He approached it in the near darkness and thinking it had worked for the door, he placed his hands on the engine and proceeded to push energy from his body as he thought, Restart engine.
It wasn’t a complete failure. He did feel the energy pass from his body into the ship, but it just wasn’t enough to restart the engine. He tried repeatedly but it was to no avail.
Jason thought out loud, “How the hell am I going to restart this engine?” And a moment later a new archway opened.
Jason stared at the archway, hoping it was the answer, but also remembering Alise’s concern about his going into unknown rooms. Figuring at this point he had nothing to lose, he cautiously passed through the unknown archway.
*****
The temporal blurring effect passed over Jason once again and he stood in a hexagonal room. A table in the same shape was situated in the middle. He walked around, taking in the configuration and looking at the walls. All six had monitors on them. The archway he had just come through closed and turned into a display that read, TDS 1 System Failure Imminent. To his right a display read, TDS 2 Off Line. The next wall read, TDS 3 Powered Down, and the next read, TDS 4 Off Line, followed by, TDS 5 System Optimal and the last wall just read, Stasis. He walked around, looking for a console or some way to interface with his ship but he had no luck.
Jason muttered to himself, Okay, now what do I do? As he did a console rose from the table in front of the wall through which he had just entered, and came online. He went to the console, sat in one of the two chairs in front of it, and read,
TDS 1
System Failure Imminent.
A system restart flashed on the screen, and he reached out, hesitated only a second and then pressed his finger to it. The screen went blank a moment then the lights seemed to dim in the room and a second later the screen came to life with a complex algorithm.
Jason stood there with his eyes glued to the console and fifteen minutes later the display changed to read,
TDS 1
System Optimal.
With a sigh of relief, Jason went back to his ship to check on everyone.
*****
Alise came back online and was at a loss for what just happened. All during the attack she had been attempting to reset the ship's power system, and to her last recollection she still hadn’t got the protocol to initiate before her program shut down.
Peering into the ships data log she found that a system wide reset had been started, but there was no indication as to how or where it was initiated from. Figuring Jason must’ve done it she attempted to locate him but she was unable to sense him. She called out in mind, Jason, can you hear me? But there was no response.
Worried that he might have been mortally wounded in the attack she performed a bio-scan of the ship, but the only lifeforms on the ship were in decon, but Jason’s were not on the ship, and the best case scenario popped into her head so she began a DNA track to attempt to locate him.
Alise knew the scan would take a little while so she decided to settle Jason’s family back on the second level. She reconfigured the level into the cubicle rooms and remade the items they would need, then she headed to decon.
Alise opened the decon archway to let them out, but she was immediately assailed by Jason’s uncle Tom. He had been furious at being brought back to the ship and stuck in the room. She tried to apologize to the man but he began ranting and ordering her to get Jason there right now. She tried the dumb robot approach, but they were not buying it.
Alise sighed and said, “Jason is unavailable right now. Please make your way back to the second level and Jason will address your concerns when he is able.”
Apparently, that was the wrong thing to say because Tom lunged at her and she was about to subdue the man when Justin and Jerren caught him and restrained him at the same time.
Alise could feel her brow raise at the man’s audacity, but she regained herself and restated her request for them to all make their way to the second level. Everyone headed down the corridor toward the control room, with the exception of Jason’s uncle, father, stepmother, and his brothers.
Whereas Jason’s uncle and parents were obviously hostile, Justin and Jerren appeared to only be holding back in case their uncle tried to go after her again. Their uncle and parents adamantly refused to leave until Jason told them what was happening.
After ten minutes of demanding that Alise get Jason, she had enough and shouted, “If you do not go to the second level immediately, I will depressurize the lower level!” It was a complete lie, she wouldn’t intentionally harm them, but they didn’t know that.
Tom began to shout again, so Alise decided on adding a little theatrics, and a moment later the sound of air could be heard whistling in the room. After which, Tom, Gwen, and Arthur took off in a rush for the gravity lift.
Justin and Jerren had remained behind, and Alise figured that they knew she was bluffing by the smirks on their faces as they watched the retreating figures of their parents and uncle.
Jerren looked like he was seriously trying not to laugh.
When the ceiling had closed behind them, both Justin and Jerran busted out in laughter. Once they regained themselves Justin turned to Alise and asked, “is there anything we can do to help?”
Alise liked these two, the rest of the family not so much. Perhaps it was because they put her in mind of Jason. At the moment she wasn’t sure what was up, so she smiled warmly and told them, “As soon as I have some answers I will let you two know, but for now I am still trying to figure out exactly what happened.”
Jerren placed his hand on her shoulder and said, “If we can help in any way just let us know.”
“I will, you might want to head up to the second level as well, or they will be hounding you for answers you do not have either,” Alise said.
Jerran and Justin both nodded and they followed her into the inner corridor and ascended to the second level.
Alise went back into the control room to check the status of her DNA scan, and she was a little startled to find it was already complete. Examining the results, she let out a disgruntled sigh. The DNA tracker had pointed back to their current location, and she realized that as long as Jason’s brothers and other family members were aboard the ship, the scanner would only point to them.
Figuring there had to be a way to track beyond the current occupants of the ship, Alise began sifting through the memories of her first Lantin commander Andel’s, TDS training with the Imortum.
*****
When Jason reentered the ship, his mind was assailed with the angry voices of his family. It was almost nauseating but he managed to suppress the voices and entered the control room then he heard Alise’s voice ring out.
“You are back. Where have you been?” she asked.
Jason took in a few deep breaths and as he did, the voices faded away completely. He saw Alise at the control panel looking back at him and explained about finding the archway in the engine room and restarting the ship.
Alise looked stunned and said, “there has never been an archway other than the entrance into that room,” then she asked, “How long did that take you?”
Jason thought about it a moment then he said, “I’d say about fifteen minutes, not too long.”
Alise looked concerned as she explained, “The ship has been back online for almost two hours now. The final systems restarted a couple of minutes ago. I was concerned that one of the other ships had transported you off this ship and I tried to track you but I was unsuccessful. What happened after the shutdown? I thought we were all goners.”
Jaso
n explained about feeling a sense of calm engulf him and how his body seemed to be reaching out and crushing the ships and how the others fled. When he got to the other pyramid ship, he paused.
“And?” Alise prompted.
“Well, I could sense the other TDS ship just out of phase. It angered me that they were watching us being attacked and I became more focused, then I reached out to grab that ship. I concentrated as much as I could, but when I reached out to end all of this I felt a surge of energy rebound back to me. Right after that, they took off and I couldn’t sense them anymore.”
“Something is not right,” Alise stated, then continued, “There is no way that commander could have beat us to your family.” A glazed look momentarily passed over her face as if in concentration. “Unless he was already heading there, before…” Alise said the last part in a muffled tone. “Well, at least none of our passengers was injured too seriously. Scrapes and bruises mostly.”
“Have you talked with them yet?” Jason asked.
“Yes, and now I am wishing I had not done that stunt at your birthday party. They will not stop pestering me for answers I did not have and it took me a good ten minutes to get your parents and uncle to go up to the second level. I had to threaten them with depressurizing the ship if they did not leave me be, and every minute or so they open the communications demanding to know what is happening.”
As if on cue, the communications console chirped and his father’s angry voice shouted for Alise to tell them what was happening.
“None of your family were amused at being stuck in decon for a little over forty-five minutes.” A smirk that looked like a mixture of amusement and pity had crossed her face, and Alise told him, “Now that you are back, you can take care of them.”
Jason could feel the relief emanating from Alise as she walked away and he stifled a laugh. That was until it sank in that she was right. He did have to deal with his family. Letting out a low groan, he opened the communications and informed his father that he’d be right up.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Jason could understand Alise’s pain in dealing with his family. He didn’t want to go into too many details, so he just explained about the other TDS ship and how that commander was tracking them, and the attack that all of them had just survived. But they just would not let up. The only ones who stood up and finally got the rest of the family to back down were Jerren and Justin. They could see he was stressed and not in the best of moods. Didn’t the others realize what a close call it had been? Guess not. He thought.
Jason was back on the first level and was about to go into the control room when an idea came to him. Looking toward the engine room a second he called out, “Alise, could you come over here a second?”
“How did the family take it?” Alise asked with a knowing smirk.
“About as well as I expected. Jerren and Justin got them to calm down a little. I was just about ready to send them back to the planet to fend for themselves when my brothers stepped in.”
Alise chuckled. “You would not have done that, and you know it.”
“Yeah, but the thought made me calm down a little,” he said with a laugh. “Enough of that, I need you to do me a favor… Nothing to do with the family!” he stated, seeing her hesitation.
“Okay, then what can I do for you?”
Jason looked at Alise, knowing full well she was going to argue but said, “I need you to perform a DNA track.”
“Who do you want me to track?”
Jason hesitated a second, then he said, “Me.”
Alise looked a little befuddled. “You are on the ship. It will not work with you so close, not to mention all of your family are onboard.”
She paused a moment, apparently lost in thought, then said, “I tried to track you when you were gone, but it pointed back to this ship. So, I scanned my first commander Andel’s archived memories and found a possible solution, I could tag your other family members to block them from showing up but as I said, you are too close.”
Jason steeled himself for the argument. “I’m going back to the meeting room and I want you to track me while I’m there. How long will that take?” he asked.
Jason was right. Alise was not happy about his idea at all. Her main concern was he might not be able to get back to the ship this time. That was when he argued that he had made it there and back when the ship was a mess and thought it would be fine. In the end, Alise relented but she insisted he put on a life monitor similar to the ones she had given to his brothers at the birthday party.
Their plan was simple. He was to go there and wait until the alarm went off on the life monitor, then come right back. Alise told him it should not take any longer than twelve hours, so he figured there would be time to poke around in there.
*****
Jason had been in the meeting room for about an hour before he got into the computer enough to finally get some usable information. The room he was in was listed as the master control room. It was directly connected to five ships, or at least it had been connected to them at some point in time. The data showed one of the five ships had been destroyed thirty-five thousand years ago and the second had been destroyed a year later. The third ship went offline fifteen thousand years ago, which left his ship and one other still active.
It was fascinating. The deeper into the systems Jason delved, the more he seemed to absorb and understand about the running of the ship. There was a seemingly endless stream of data and he knew it would take far longer to examine than he had.
Jason had been sifting through the files of information for about six of the allotted twelve hours when his attention was drawn to the third ship. It had been powered down and he wondered if there was something wrong with it. With that thought, a diagnostic program began running on the TDS 3 wall.
Startled by the activity he thought, How am I doing all of this?
As if another command had been input, the monitor in front of him brought up a schematic showing a very complex system that indicated the connections between his ship, the disk attached to his head and the master control room, or more specifically the console directly associated with his ship. On the console were the words,
TDS 1
Minimal access protocol
Reengage full access (Yes) or (No)
Jason was intrigued and thought what the hell then he selected (Yes).
For a moment, Jason thought his head was going to explode. He could feel the information throttle back as he saw the screen flash red and heard alarms sounding all around him. The pain receded and he looked at the display, which now read,
TDS 1
Minimal access protocol.
Reengage full access (Yes) or (No).
Safety Protocol engaged
Auto data stream reduced to 25%.
As the safety protocol activated, his head ceased to pound as much and he silently admitted he was never going to mention what had just happened to Alise if he could help it. He figured she would never let him hear the end of it. He saw streams of data pop up and instantly knew what was in them. This is the only way to learn, he thought to himself with a chuckle.
From the looks of the diagram he was reviewing, he would be streaming data from the control room even if he were on his ship. He stood and went to the TDS 3 station and requested a console. One appeared but it allowed only minor queries regarding the status of the ship. Jason performed a status check and the diagnostic that had started a few minutes earlier popped up on the screen. A few seconds later the report read out,
TDS 3
AL not online
No life forms onboard, fifteen thousand one hundred thirty-three years Location 374.4 KKSLO Terra .5 PTD.
AL commander no longer viable.
Reset binding disk for new commander? (YES) or (NO).
Jason’s mind was reeling. He looked at the display wall and thought, Where is TDS 3 location 374.4 KKSLO Terra .5 PTD?
As he thought it, a map of a spiral galaxy appeared on the wal
l. Then it zoomed in until it came to rest on a blinking dot on the far side of a moon that if Jason wasn’t mistaken was orbiting Earth. Well, it looked like Earth. The continents were a lot closer than he remembered but it was definitely an image of Earth.
Jason knew from what Alise said that the ships could not be in the same location and phase at the same time. So how am I going to be able to board the ship? Once again, as the thought crossed his mind, an archway appeared on the wall where the map had been, and he thought, No guts no glory. then without another thought, he took a deep breath and stepped through the archway.
*****
The second Jason entered TDS 3 he knew he had made a serious mistake. The ship was colder than shit and the gravity was gone. When he exhaled, his breath instantly turned to ice and he began floating in the darkness as his face and eyes began freezing.
Jason immediately reached behind himself and grasped the archway to pull himself back through. A freezing burn filled his lungs when he made the mistake of inhaling, and that is when he noticed his hand began to burn as well.
Peering down through the freezing tears, Jason found his hand was freezing to the metal he’d grasped. He jerked as hard as he could to remove his hand from the archway and was propelled back through the archway and into the master control room. His hand tore free a moment later as the gravity hit him and he fell to the floor of the master control room, and he began coughing in painful rasps.
Jason’s hand was frozen and felt as if it and his lungs were on fire at the same time. Through the painful burning in his eye’s, he found that a large portion of his skin was missing from the palm of his left hand and fingers. He grasped it with his other hand when the pain began to surge and taking deep breaths, he tried not to lose consciousness.
Jason was just about to open the archway to his ship when he felt a harmonic resonance engulf him and within seconds the pain in his body began to subside. His eye’s, though still feeling a little like sand or gravel were stuck under the lids were painful, but they too were clearing.