Chapter Five
The morning of January 15th
The Planet Orion
Two years earlier, on the colony planet of Orion, Tyler Burrows, the Mayor of Orion, a pompous title so Tyler himself said, for the position of a part time planetary manager, was talking to Brian Goddard, scientist extraordinaire, and friend. Tyler was aged twenty-nine years, was five feet nine inches high with brown hair, baby blue eyes, a square chin and a largish nose. Tyler and his friend George Masters were from Earth, but one of the twenty first century, they were brought to Orion in a violent time storm.
"I need a favour of you Brian, or to be more exact the Mayor does."
Brian Goddard and his wife Tracy were the only two scientists remaining on the planet from the ill-fated Time Machine project headed by the late, great scientist, Richard Jameson. He was aged forty-seven, an African American, short and stocky with wiry black hair, his dark brown eyes normally showed a sleepy expression and he hailed from southern states of the United States of America.
"And what can a lowly serf do for the all-powerful Mayor?" Brian asked, tongue in cheek.
"You can cut that out for a start." Tyler said laughing before explaining what was on his mind.
"I know that you have been going over the crashed Heliot starships ever since our illustrious President returned to Earth, and I am hoping that you have learnt enough to allow you to do something for me. I want you to give our small cargo vessel a makeover, a little oomph so that we can use it to beef up our planetary defences. Bishop Sinclair as you know is constantly in touch with the other planets of his faith, and he is getting increasing worried by the number of raids being made by space pirates of late, and in the star systems that are not too far away from ours. If the Government of Earth does not do anything about them then eventually it will be our turn to receive a visit from them. I have been out looking at the remains of the Heliot fleet that crashed during the time storm. Some of their Phasers look to be in a reasonable condition, as far as I can tell that is. I was thinking of setting up one of the larger Phasers in the hold of the ship where there is plenty of space for it, and have it positioned to fire out through the bows of the ship, this and maybe an increase in the shield strength should do nicely." Tyler might have been asking a decorator to paint his flat from the way he said it.
"Is that all Tyler, and who is going to help me work these miracles that I am to perform?" Brian asked.
"I will of course, and I am sure that Colin Ryan will volunteer his services, I know for a fact that he gets a little bored, even though he has a small farm to run and acts as the planet`s Constable on the side. Colin Ryan was an ex Space Marine who had stayed behind on Orion as he was officially retired now, this was just as the other marines left for other duties. Given some help from the villagers, who we will need to help us with all of the heavy manual work, I thought it might be possible, if you think you are up to the task of course?" Tyler said baiting his friend; Brian dismissed this obvious attempt by his friend.
"We would also have to beef up the power from the hyper-space drive to give you enough energy to use all these extra devices, but I suppose that it might be just possible, Tyler, as long as the Heliot technology is not way over my head." Brian said warming to the idea.
"Brian, I am sure that you are quite up to coping with anything that the Heliot technology might throw at you, especially as you have been turning out quite a reasonable line in top of the range items using that same Heliot technology, one that you and Tracy have taken from the said broken starships." Tyler replied.
"Thank you oh mighty one for your unbounded faith in your humble servant, and yes Tyler, we have made an honest crust doing just that." Brian said.
"I`ll give you humble servant." Tyler said laughing before continuing.
"Now then oh humble one; the planet will not be able to pay you as much as you are getting for consulting on the Matter Transporter, or inventing top of the line hardware for starships. However, we are getting a steady income now from the Dylithium crystal mine we found in the tunnels of the Troglodytes, when we forced them to mend their ways and become good citizens of Orion, we could divert some of this money to pay you for your work." Tyler offered by way of compensation.
"Don`t worry about that, if we pull this off it will help protect Tracy and the children, not to mention all the other families on Orion, they might even make me Minister of Science here on Orion." Brian said.
The two friends were laughing at this fantasy of Brian`s just as Tracy Goddard chose that moment to enter the room. Tracy was aged forty-seven and like her husband was of African American descent hailing from the state of Alabama in the southern United States of America. She was pretty and petite with brown eyes and long black hair, and she was extremely clever.
"What are you two laughing about; I thought you told me that you wanted to talk to Brian about some work to keep him out of mischief, not to fool around." Tracy said, looking at the two men laughing, as she shook her head in despair.
"Tyler wants me to give our cargo vessel some teeth to protect the people of Orion from any space pirates that might come our way." Brian explained after getting control of himself.
"Well it is about time that you came up with a plan to deal with the possible threat that they pose to us, Tyler Burrows." Tracy said admonishing her friend.
"Well if you will be happy for me to steal your husband away from you for a while, then we will get right on to it." Tyler said smiling at her.
"I would be very grateful if you took Brian away from under my feet for a while Tyler, the longer the better." Tracy Goddard said while pretending to ignore the fact that her husband was there.
"Tyler why is it that my wife doesn`t appreciate me?"
Paul Johnson, one of the colonists on Orion was the pilot for the colony, having been a space pilot in his early life back when he lived on Earth. Now he was a farmer, but he also helped when needed with piloting the cargo vessel. Today he was needed so he flew Tyler, Brian and Caroline, Tyler`s wife, who fancied the day out in the warm spring sunshine, in the cargo vessel to the remains of the Heliot fleet where they would be doing all the initial work. With them were Craig Stevens and Frank Mason who were the cargo vessel`s two engineers, a position they had enjoyed before aboard one of Earth`s space cruisers, now they did it for fun.
The cargo vessel took off from New Eden and flew through the long wide valley between the mountains, which took them finally to the flat plains on the south of the continent and then to the small valley that was the crash site. The crash site extended for five miles along the base of the mountains southern foothills; this area was still mostly barren because of the poisonous chemicals that had spilled from the broken fleet, but it was slowly coming back to life. Paul Johnson landed just about midway in the crash zone, just in front of one of the broken space cruisers. They used two small Jeeps to visit each of the broken hulks.
"The area seems to be unaltered since we were here that last time Tyler." Caroline said. "Death is still the only thing growing here." Caroline had long blond hair, very blue eyes, was just five feet eight inches tall and was very beautiful.
"Yes but at least this time there are no Heliot troopers around trying to kill or enslave us." Tyler replied as he thought back to a previous trip to this small valley.
"Animal life is returning to the area though; see there is a small herd of Stager Deer hiding in the trees of that small wood over there, although they cannot be finding a lot of food to eat about here yet." Brian Goddard said as he pointed them out.
The floor of the crash site had been burnt by the red hot metal of the space cruisers when they had slid for miles along the grassy plain and set the area ablaze. This had destroyed the flora of the area, luckily for the survivors of the Heliot ships the area had been recently grazed by the deer and so the fire had soon gone out, but the ground was still contaminated from the various chemicals that had spilled out of the broken craft.
The first thing was to identify what was usabl
e, and it took them the rest of the day to go over the wrecks. Their footsteps echoed through each of the hulks that they entered, making it a rather spooky place. It also made them think about the stories told by the locals, about the place being haunted by the ghosts from the many dead Heliot crewmembers that had been killed when these spacecraft crashed here following the time storm.
They found one of the ships Phasers that was still in a reasonable condition aboard the third of the space cruisers that they searched. On the fifth of the hulks they found what Brian thought might be enough of a defence shield to be incorporated into the cargo ship`s present one to increase the protection that it gave its crew. There was an almost complete hyperspace engine on the same broken starship; it could be repaired using parts from the rest of the broken fleet.
"Finding them is one thing, fitting them to the cargo vessel and making them work without it tearing the cargo vessel apart is another." Brian Goddard said, many of his old doubts coming back to him.
Tyler had no doubts, and Paul Johnson now told how he could also help in this respect.
"Twenty one years ago when I was back on Mars they did not run to such conveniences as a space dock, even the space port lacked modern tools. Coupled to all that there was a severe shortage of mechanics due to the war with the Lyre Federation, so I learnt quite a lot about starships and how to repair them, I had to or my ship would never have kept going. From what I have seen here I think that Brian and I, with help from the villagers to assist us with the heavier work, could upgrade the cargo vessel to planetary defender, assuming as Brian says that we don`t tear the ship apart when we start her engine after the upgrade." Paul Johnson was six feet tall with greying hair, grey eyes, a handsome face and a physique that belied his fifty-five years.
His positive feeling also affected the others. Craig Stevens and Frank Mason both knew a fair bit about hyperspace engines, and they volunteered their spare time cheerfully. Both men were in their late fifties, and were quite similar in appearance, although Craig was two inches taller than his friend who was only five feet six inches tall. However, they were beginning to put on weight due to their intense dislike of physical exercise. They had retired to Orion looking for a more pleasant life, living and working back on Terra Firma. They were Orion`s mechanics and technicians extraordinaire, and were working on the Orion Defender for fun, and were strictly part time only.
"Forget about your spare time Craig, Frank, the planet will pay you for your time, then if necessary you can pay someone else to carry out any of your normal work that suffers from all the time you will have to give to this project. That goes for you too Paul, is that all right with the three of you?" Tyler asked.
"Yes that is fine Tyler and thank you, a little extra is always welcome and it will also mean that we won`t have to worry about our farms or businesses while we work on your project." Paul Johnson said, and the other two agreed, happy to be without that worry.
The work was deliberately slow, so that the mistakes made by the Heliot crew did not happen again, but slowly the work did progress. The Phaser was stripped from the broken hulk, then the defence shield and finally the hyperspace engine, these were all taken back to New Eden for storage in the now empty and disused science block. Brian with the help of Paul, Craig and Frank had previously followed the connections from the hardware to the ships power supply, the hyperspace engine, and took the necessary parts that were necessary to their functioning correctly; lastly, there was the computer programs, which was where Tracy Goddard came in. Tracy was one of Earth`s foremost computer experts and had been responsible for writing the software for the ill-fated Time experiments carried out here on Orion, and she was writing the software for the Matter Transporter team, as some of the software needed had come from that written for the Time experiment.
Tracy had been very happy to get away from the house and help out, for now she had almost finished working on the software for the Matter Transporter.
Tyler was there to do what he was told to do, and enjoyed himself immensely, but what surprised everyone was that Caroline also turned up each day, she was very eager to learn. Now, Caroline was stripping down Heliot technology, making a detailed drawing showing where each item had come from, and months later with the help of Brian Goddard and the others fitting it into the cargo vessel. It was soon obvious to everyone that Caroline was a natural engineer. As Tyler commented, Caroline seemed to have a photographic memory that until now had been under worked and undiscovered. People now saw a new side to Caroline; a side that no one ever expected, her engineering bent. She even helped Brian, Tracy and Paul to lay the links between the Phaser and a weapons console built by the others to allow the weapon to be aimed and fired from the bridge by a computer which was incorporated into the console, which negated the need for them to connect the Phaser up to the ships main computer. All of the team were now very familiar with the workings of the ship and would be welcome additions to any starship crew, if they had so desired, even Tyler ensured that he knew something about the workings of the ship, even if he was not as competent as the others were.
That had been two years ago, now the cargo vessel even had a name, the Orion Defender, a name first put to the ship by Paul Johnson when they had first started the project. Paul and Brian had found to their delight, and to Tyler`s when they told him, that the Heliot space drive was easier on the ship`s hull, being of a more advanced design, and that the integrity of the Defender was no longer a concern. They would be able to operate the extra devices added to the cargo vessel without having to worry that the ship would break up when they were using them all at full power. The hull of the Defender had been enlarged with metal ripped from the hulks of the Heliot fleet to create a large arched structure to allow the bulk of the massive Heliot hyperspace engine to fit into the engine room. They used still more of the metal to add extra armour to the hull of the Orion Defender. In the centre of the Defender`s hold sat their new heavy Phaser. When in operation it vibrated quite a bit, and so that was attached firmly to the floor and to the ceiling so as to prevent it damaging itself or members of the crew, and anti-vibration mats were put under it and over it to protect the ship from being shaken apart. A new wall was built along part of the middle section of the ship to house an air lock so that the rear door of the ship`s hold did not have to be opened to allow access into and out of the ship. This also meant that they could now couple up to another craft that did not possess a large enough hanger deck to accommodate the Orion Defender. All of this technology and hardware had come from the broken Heliot starships.
One other thing that Tyler had insisted upon, that Paul gave him lessons that would enable him to pilot the ship. Caroline then surprised everyone again when she joined in his lessons, and then demanded that she also be taught how to pilot the Orion Defender.
The full crew of the starship comprised the following. Tyler and Caroline Burrows, Paul Johnson who was the helmsman. Colin Freeman who had a history that included a spell on a space cruiser as a science officer. Although he was in charge of communications, he could also pilot the Orion Defender if need be, as he was more than qualified to do so. He was aged fifty-eight with brown hair going grey, five feet nine inches tall with grey eyes and he had retained both his good looks and his lean build. Richard Smith, who had once had been an officer aboard a light space cruiser. He was aged forty-seven years of age with brown eyes and dark brown hair. In the engine room there were also the two ex-starship crewmembers Craig Stevens and Frank Mason who now knew more about the workings of the ship`s engines than anyone else on Orion.
The landing party comprised of Appolon, who was Caroline`s brother and chief of the village where Tyler and Caroline lived, and six of his warriors, all of who were armed with a Heliot Phaser weapon.
All the members of the crew knew that they would be risking their lives if they had to confront a space pirate, but all would rather be here risking their lives in space than fighting the pirates on Orion, with their families then at risk a
s well.
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