Sleeping in the Stars
Page 39
“We wait.”
“Wait?”
“Let’s give the situation some time. Let’s see if anything changes with the status of the ship. Right now, we don’t have enough information.”
“How long?”
“I’d say three sedeca.”
“Thoughtful. Captain, bring us around so that we are parallel, above, but not to close. Then let’s match speed and just drift with our new friend.”
“Your command, My Princess. Lieutenant Banajin, please take up position above and parallel to the alien craft. Keep a distance of one hundred locts.”
The lead pilot followed orders. Three sedeca passed. Nothing changed. Everyone regrouped on the bridge.
“Princess?” Captain Kakkarna asked.
“Doctor?” Princess Analyn redirected the implied question.
“We bring it in, set up a gravity shield around it and inspect it. What we find determines our next course of action.”
“I concur,” voiced an excited princess. “This is what we have been hoping for during our searches. Well, not something drifting in space, but still, what we hoped for.”
The captain turned to his deflections officer. “Lieutenant Talwana, would you please have the grappler attached to the alien vessel and pull it into our bay? Then erect a gravity field around it in case anything explosive or destructive occurs?”
“Yes, Sir.”
Talwana commanded a portion of his team. Four Intensely focused beams of blue energy lanced from the undercarriage of the Star Seeker and found purchase on the strange craft. The brute force pull of the reverse gravity beams slowly dragged the ship towards and into the gaping maw of the collection bay.
* * * * *
Captain Krag Marston didn’t waken in time to experience Griffin, his ship, being drawn into the belly of the giant ship floating above.
To be Continued
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Read farther for a snippet of Marston Chronicles, Book 2 – Waking in the Stars, Arrival date – April, 2019.
Aboard Griffin
The sealed pod clicked.
As one, all of the Elonians turned and faced the source of the noise. Mahajani pulled his sword. They heard suction sounds. The pod went quiet. Then it swung open. They saw a strange bipedal being, wearing a skin-tight silver body suit and some sort of metal head covering, if it had a head. It swung its lower extremities out and placed two of its strange paws on the deck. With its clawless manipulating paws, it removed the head covering and jumped to an upright position.
“Doctor Roshnak,” Princess Analyn sent a telepathic shout. “We need you up here, now!”
Mahajani raised his weapon in a two-handed grip and stepped forward. Princess Analyn raised her hand and gave a ‘hold’ gesture. The giant Elonian stopped, eyes still burning into the strange alien.
Doctor Roshnak rushed to the hatch and slammed to a stop.
* * * * *
“What the? Buster!” Krag sub-vocalized, in full panic mode.”
“Hello Krag,” Buster responded verbally over the intercom.
The five Elonians looked around, attempting to find the source of the strange sounds.
“Hello Krag?” the thought passed quickly. “Buster, download into your avatar and arm up,” again sub-vocalizing, still panicking but finally letting analysis begin to creep in.
“I can’t,” again Buster responded over the intercom.
Forcing down his fear and forcing himself to inspect and evaluate the situation, Krag saw two cat-like creatures just standing, watching, as though waiting or frozen in fear. He also saw a giant one holding a huge sword in a high attacking position but also just standing. Another cat squatted next to Buster’s cylinder, beside a cat-looking robot.
“What do you mean you can’t? I need it here, now!”
“I’m sorry, Krag, but I can’t. It seems that I have become too large for the containment crystals in the avatar.”
Recognizing his disadvantage, Krag slowly backed up to the pod, held his hands up above his head, palms out and sat.
Scanning, analysing, he saw five cat-like creatures. Bipedal. Black and white mottled fur. Paws, with retractable claws, instead of hands and feet. Pointed ears on top of their heads and a muzzle instead of mouth and nose. A Long, flexible tail completed the cat resemblance.
All dressed in some kind of knee-length garment, resembling a Roman tunic, with a cinch belt at the waist. All wore some kind of electrical devices on their arms and other ones on their shoulders. The large cat with a sword wore an additional layer of armour. Its tunic was a deep brown, the armour a burnt orange, made of hinged platelets, leaving the head, arms and lower legs exposed.
An average-sized one, in addition to the burnt-orange tunic that matched the armed cat, wore a large medallion hanging on a heavy chain and a dagger on its belt. Three of the cats dressed in simple green tunics with burnt-orange insignias that matched the medallion that the average one wore. They all wore complex belts with over-stuffed pouches. The robot’s tunic shimmered silver, its belt simple, the same burnt orange as the cat with the medallion.
A sixth cat, also wearing the green tunic and over-stuffed belt, rushed to the door and stopped.
* * * * *
Staring at the alien, Doctor Roshnak, flattened his ears, avoided all eye contact and slowly, with no outward gestures, walked into the room, careful to keep as much distance between himself and the alien as possible.
“Doctor Roshnak, you are our anthropologist. What do we do now?“ Princess Analyn telepathically asked.
“Thinking for a moment, he responded, “First we show it that we are not a danger. It is in no danger. We show it that it is safe.”
The princess squinted her eyes in thought, laid her ears flat and sideways then stepped towards the alien now sitting on the pod. She held her paws up, palms out and rotated them until she showed their backs. Then, without moving, she extended all of her claws, displaying the natural fighting weapons of her species. Again without moving, she retracted her claws and brought her paws to her belt. The princess slowly, carefully, withdrew her dagger and held it, point down. Softly holding it, handle facing the alien, and she stepped forward until she reached arm’s length. She waited, holding the dagger, ears down, large green eyes looking into the eyes of the alien.
The alien kept its strange paws raised above its head.
The princess spoke to Mahajani, “Lower your weapon, place it on the deck.”
“My Princess!”
“That’s a command!” She barked.
Glaring murder at the alien, the bodyguard lowered his weapon, squatted and laid it on the deck, pommel within easy reach.
“Look down, lower your ears. Coil your tail.” Princess Analyn commanded.
Mahajani grudgingly did as his Princess ordered.
Princess Analyn slowly squatted and placed her dagger on the deck and placed her hands on her haunches.
* * * * *
Krag prayed to the Gods that he understood these alien movements. He very slowly lowered his hands and carefully stood. He didn’t know who the smaller one was, but he believed that it was in charge. If the large one’s movements indicated anything, moving towards the small one would not be healthy, so he Held his arms wide, palms forward, and walked towards the giant cat with the deadly sword. Once he reached the sword, he bent down, grabbed the hilt with two hands and gradually lifted it off of the deck.
All four sets of the giant cat’s claws came out. The smallish cat with the medallion snapped a growl and the big cat retracted its talons.
Again, with great deliberation, Krag handed the sword to its owner, pommel first. Once the obvious warrior took back its weapon, Krag backed up to his
pod and sat back down, heart and thoughts racing.
“Buster, why can’t you download to the avatar?” Krag sub-vocalized.
“These beings, they call themselves Elonians by the way, did something. These Elonians added a great deal of code and programs to my original matrix.”
“What did they do to you?”
“I’m not sure.”
“Run diagnostics. Compare those to your previous ones. Find the differences.”
“I have already done that, Krag. And there are no differences to my primary kernel. All logic routines and memory banks have not been modified. However, multiple access points have been created. And a large logic bubble has been constructed around my original matrix. It’s as though the Elonians enhanced my existing code.”
“You are acting differently. More, I don’t know, human?”
“Whatever that means. There is one other thing. They also downloaded their language and I have been building a translation algorithm. It should be ready in a few minutes.”
“I’ll wait.” Krag continued sitting. The Elonians, except for the giant one, shuffled around, seeming at a loss for something to do. The warrior stood on guard, resting its paw on the hilt of the now-sheathed sword. The robot remained squatting, unmoving.
Table of Contents
Copyright
Map of the Federacy
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Epilogue