"Jason, can you hear me?"
Speaking of the devil...
"Yes Deetz, I copy. What can I do for you? Over."
"Over what?"
"Nevermind," Jason rolled his eyes, "What do you need?"
"Just curious about how much longer you'll be. We're about done with repairs and will be ready for lift in approximately an hour."
"Already? That was fast."
"Not especially so. You've been out there for a few hours now."
Jason rose easily to his feet, looking like a gymnast in the light Martian gravity. "I'm on the bounce. I'll be back shortly." Ha. On the bounce... He laughed at the irony of using a line from one of his favorite novels, Starship Troopers, as he actually bounced across an alien planet in a spacesuit. If only Heinlein could see him.
Approaching the gunship Jason could see significant changes, most notably to the hull, which had been splotchy with burn marks and scarred by blast impacts. It was now smooth and shone dully in the light like burnished steel. The cargo ramp was still down so Jason bounced up and into the hold, stumbling slightly as the gravity doubled. It appeared that artificial gravity had been restored, so Jason had to assume the slip-drive reactor was also up and running without incident. After popping the seal on his helmet and removing it Jason could really feel what the damage control system had done. The ship positively hummed with energy; a low-frequency, omnipresent tingle that hadn't been there before. As he made his way across the cargo bay Deetz's voice came over the ship's public address.
"Meet me in the room you suited up in and I'll help you out of that thing. We should be ready to get out of here once you're dressed again."
It was at least forty minutes after boarding before Jason was free of the exo-atmospheric suit. "These things aren't really designed to be quick or convenient. Nearly anyone who would serve aboard a ship like this would have a much more capable combat suit that they would wear. These are more contingency items." This last comment brought Jason's thoughts right back to the missing crew, and the synth's evasiveness about where they might be. He decided to ignore the thought that was nagging at the back of his mind, as he had more or less decided to go with Deetz on this cargo run. Dwelling on it wouldn't do him any good.
As he laced up his boots while sitting on a bench, he asked Deetz a question, "So how long of a flight is it to this cargo pickup?" Silence. Looking around, he noticed he was talking to himself as the synth was nowhere in the room. "Well what the fuck?" He couldn't believe Deetz had been able to so easily exit the room without his noticing. Either his situational awareness wasn't nearly as good as he had been led to believe, or the synth was extremely sneaky. Shrugging, he stood up and stretched, enjoying the normal gravity, and strode out of the room on his way to the bridge.
Walking onto the bridge, Jason was further impressed at how alive the ship seemed now. Deetz stood in the middle of the raised dais in the center, feet shoulder width apart and hands on its hips. Jason had already become accustomed to the human-like gestures and mannerisms the machine exhibited, so its appearance no longer startled him. "So, what's the play?"
"I'd say that depends on what your decision is. So, what will it be? Ready for the adventure of a lifetime?" The cheesy, used car salesman act Deetz was doing grated on Jason's nerves.
"Yes. I'm going with you," Jason began, ignoring the wide smile that appeared on the synth's face. "But, I want it made clear that I'm simply a glorified passenger. I'm trusting that you aren't planning on tossing me into anything more... involved... than just being a biological at the pickup." Jason realized how idiotic his speech was. He would be a de facto prisoner once they were there, marooned God knows how many light years from Earth. If Deetz had nefarious intentions, Jason would be in no position to do anything about it. Still, the risk to reward ratio was still tipping the scale in favor of going along for the ride.
"Not an issue. You'll just disembark, tag a couple forms, and we'll be on our way. You'll get to see some incredible things before I bring you back to your planet."
"Ok. We ready to rock then? I'm assuming this bird it at 100%." Jason especially appreciated the clean processed air that the environmental system was pumping out. It was a vast improvement over the acrid aroma of burnt electronics and ozone.
"Oh not quite at one-hundred percent, the damage control system is good, but it can't work miracles. There are some things that will require some better equipped facilities to get back to full strength." Deetz was settling into the left hand seat on the dais and motioned to the seat at his right for Jason to sit in. As soon as he sat in the seat it began to subtly adjust itself to his body shape. It gave in the right places and bolstered in the others, the result was one of the most comfortable seats he had ever sat in. It gave the initial impression of suede leather, but upon further inspection was definitely some sort of synthetic material.
Jason looked bemusedly at the array of controls and displays before him. It was an interesting mix of familiar toggle and tactile switches along with the more expected glass touch panels and, he noticed with delight, a pair of holographic displays. One of them showed the ship in its entirety, slowly rotating, with key information being displayed with arrows indicating to parts of the model. The other seemed to show the Solar System with Mars clearly highlighted by a rotating halo. On a whim, he closed two fingers and his thumb together and pushed his hand towards the Mars icon in the model. Once he felt like he was "touching" it, he quickly splayed the three digits outward. The result was satisfyingly as he expected; the holo zoomed quickly until it was showing only a rotating Mars in exquisite detail along with more scrolling text. There was also a red strobing crosshairs flashing near the Valles Marineris that he knew must indicate their position. He assumed if he "swiped" again that the holo would zoom in even further and maybe even show the ship itself. Instead, he inserted his open hand into the holo and quickly closed all his fingers together, zooming the display back out to the original display of the Solar System. Too cool. It also shows that humans must not be that unlike whoever designed these interfaces.
"If you're done playing..."
Jason looked over at Deetz sheepishly. "Just playing a hunch," he said.
"Ah. Well, if you're done we can lift off and get out of here. Once we're in flight please try to control your hunches; I'd rather not have one of them activate the self-destruct." Deetz's hands flew over the controls and a deep, steady hum started building in volume and pitch.
"This thing actually has a self-destruct?"
"No."
Deetz rested his hands on two dimly glowing hemispheres on either side of his seat, the blue light shining weakly between his fingers. While Jason couldn't exactly make out the motions the synth made, it was obvious these were the manual flight controls when the ground dropped away. He quickly gave up trying to decipher how the controls actually worked, being a far cry from the familiar stick and rudder, and enjoyed the view as Mars slid underneath them at an increasingly fast rate. Deetz was speaking out loud in that same alien dialect he used when Jason first stormed the bridge, obviously talking to the ship. As he spoke he could hear and feel changes in its configuration; some solid thumps seemed to be the landing gear coming up and locking and the pitch of that oppressive whine seemed to be directly related to their speed. "Want to see something incredible?" Deetz was now looking over at him,
How do you say no to that? "Of course." He would come to regret those words immensely. Deetz sharply spoke out a single word. The lights on the bridge dimmed instantly and a whole new set of displays came up in front of Jason. Before he could ask if the lighting change was the incredible thing he was waiting for, a hearty "boom" resounded from somewhere aft of the bridge and the ship leapt forward with enough ferocity to press him back in the seat despite the artificial gravity. Deetz made a series of exaggerated motions with the controls and the ship swung wildly until it was pointing nose down and plunging back towards the Martian surface. He leveled out a split second before Jason would
have screamed in alarm, but there would be plenty of time for that later. They shot over the edge of the Valles Marineris trench and banked hard to the right while descending into the enormous chasm. Despite the fact that the Martian geological feature dwarfed the Grand Canyon on Earth, the speed at which the ship was rocketing into it made it seem no larger than a drainage ditch. The canyon walls rose up until they completely blocked the view of the sky through the canopy, and Deetz was still accelerating and still in a dive, heading for the bottom.
For the second time in as many minutes, the ship leveled out deep within the trench just as Jason's muscles clenched up and an alarmed yelp would have escaped his lips. The velocity at which they were powering up the canyon at was stunning, Jason wished he could understand the scrolling numbers and indicators in front of him so he could know just how fast they were moving. Apparently that wasn't the extent of the incredible something that Deetz had promised. At another spoken command from the synth and a few hand movements on the controls an immense roar issued forth from the engines and Jason was planted hard back into his seat. The ship's speed increased to what could only be described as suicidal as they thundered along the floor of the canyon kicking up a huge trailing plume of dust. Deetz had a wide, maniacal smile on his metallic face as he piloted the ship in a terrain-hugging course that brought them perilously close to the rises along either side. Jason had gotten an "incentive ride" in an F-16 fighter jet during his time in the service, but it didn't compare to the thrill/terror of blasting along the alien landscape in an equally alien, and incredibly powerful, spaceship.
After ninety seconds of the wild ride had elapsed Deetz yanked the ship into a vertical climb that pressed Jason back into his seat even more. Now staring straight up into the Martian sky, he watched with wonder as they transitioned from flying in the atmosphere and into space. The majesty of the moment was juxtaposed with the roar of the engines as the ship clawed its way up Mars' gravity well. Deetz barked another command in that alien language and the vibration, pull of acceleration, and engine roar all ceased. The ship felt like it was parked on the ground as they continued to pull away from Mars in a direct route away from the planet. Jason was only vaguely familiar with orbital mechanics and astral navigation from a couple of college courses, but he knew enough to realize the power of the engines must be tremendous to be able just pull up and away from a planet the way they had.
"I like to tweak down the inertial compensators and engine dampeners when I do that. It makes it so much more intense." Deetz's manic actions were replaced with the more familiar smooth and polished demeanor. Jason was forced to yet again to re-evaluate how he viewed the synthetic life form; it was obvious it was able to experience a wide range of complex emotions, including not being above a little thrill seeking. He would need to keep this in mind, so far the synth was being cordial because it needed him, but that could change quickly.
As his vitals came back down to a normal level after the adrenaline rush Deetz's canyon blast had provided, Jason stared through the canopy out at stars. There seemed to be so many now that he was no longer separated from them by an atmosphere and the light pollution of modern civilization. It was quite peaceful really, as long as he didn't dwell on the reality of the situation he was in. But, now that he had made the decision to fly with Deetz on this new adventure, he felt the fear and trepidation slip away and he became anxious to see what was out there. "Are we in... slip-space?" If they were, Jason was sorely disappointed.
"No. The slip-drive emitters are being charged from the reactor. It will take a bit since the reactor was completely shut down during the repairs. It's a minor inconvenience. We have a few hours before we can activate the drive, was there anything else in this star system you've been dying to see?" Jason thought hard at the question. He'd already been up close and personal with Saturn and walked on Mars during his short time onboard. What else did he want to see?
"I suppose I'd like to see Jupiter if we're heading that way," being put on the spot like that, it was the only other interesting thing in the Solar System Jason could think of. He watched as Deetz punched some commands in on a control panel and sat back in its seat. There was no discernible difference in the ship save for a slight tick up in the pitch of the engines.
"On our way. Should be about forty-five minutes if you'd like to grab something to eat." At Deetz's casual comment he found he was suddenly famished. He felt tired as well, but he could tough it out for a bit longer. He rose from his seat and walked off the bridge. When he turned in the corridor he saw the synth had not come with him. Shit. I wonder how the galley works. Walking down the stairs (Would it be called a ladder since it was on a ship ?) he strode purposefully into the galley area. As he expected the lights came up and the panels lit in reaction to his proximity, and that was it. He stood looking at the foreign script in utter confusion, afraid to touch anything. After ninety seconds or so the ship apparently tired of waiting for him.
"Gaanantz shoowt." The disembodied voice, a pleasant sounding tenor, seemed as if it had come from the walls of the galley.
What the hell does that mean? "Um, I don't speak whatever language that is," Jason said to the wall. There were a couple beeps and then;
"Earth dialect. English, United States. Would you like all ship functions in this language?"
"Uh, yeah! That'd be great." Jason assumed it simply meant would he like it to speak English to him, but then he noticed the touch panel displays all blinked off and when they came back on they were in good ol' English instead of the hopeless looking alien script.
"What are you doing down there?!" Deetz's shout came through on the intercom.
"I'm trying to get something to eat. Why?" Isn't that what it told me to do?
"Every display up here is now in English!"
"The computer asked if I would like all functions in English, I didn't know it meant everywhere."
"Even the ship is a bigot," Deetz muttered, still being broadcast over the intercom. "Please tell it that only non-essential displays that YOU'RE using are to be in English, everything else is to be Jenovian Standard." Jason heard the intercom cut off so he didn't bother responding to Deetz. He directed his voice to one of the displays instead.
"You get that computer?" Silence. "Computer?"
"Standing by. Please state command."
"Please restore all essential functions to Jenovian Standard and display English only on displays that I personally am using." Jason hoped there wasn't a specific command syntax he was supposed to use.
"Acknowledged."
"THANK YOU," came the sarcastic shout from the direction of the bridge. The smartass machine didn't even bother to use the ship's intercom that time. Rolling his eyes, Jason addressed the ship again.
"Could I get the same thing to eat I had earlier?" He wasn't brave enough to risk culinary variety just then.
"Acknowledged," the ship replied amiably. After a few moments there was a double-beep and a panel slip up to allow a tray loaded with the familiar food to be pushed onto the serving counter. Just like the chow hall, minus the surly staff. Jason took his tray over to one of the tables and wolfed down his food, barely tasting it as he ate with the mechanical efficiency that seemed to be a trait many military veterans shared. Afterwards he rose, drained the rest of the water in his glass, and hurried back towards the bridge, not bothering to wait and see if his tray would be collected again by one of the maintenance robots.
Chapter 6
Once back on the bridge, Jason walked past the command consoles and up as close as he could get to the steeply raked forward canopy without ducking. The view was breathtaking. The transparent material, which he assumed was something far more exotic than glass or Lexan, rose up over and well behind his head. The effect was like standing on a platform out in the middle of space, the sensation nearly gave him vertigo as he looked out at the stars. After a moment he realized one of the stars was becoming brighter, and moving quickly across his field of view relative to the other
s. That must be Jupiter. Jason couldn't even hope to calculate their speed, but judging by the rate that Jupiter's brightness was increasing, it must be unimaginable by Earth-technology standards.
The furthest human from Earth stood transfixed as Jupiter began to resolve from a white speck into glorious detail. The synth sat silently in the command seat, ostensibly controlling the ship, but Jason could almost feel the eyes on him. He couldn't tell if Deetz was still feeling peevish about the language switch he had inadvertently caused on the displays or if it was something else that was keeping the normally over-talkative being quiet. Whatever the reason, Jason was grateful for it. Nothing is going to ruin this for me. The gas giant was swelling in his field of view and he could make out the stripes of its atmosphere in exquisite detail. While he had viewed every high-res photo taken by NASA's exploratory spacecraft, there was simply no comparison to gazing upon it with the naked eye. He felt the heady rush of discovery that had driven humans out of their comfort zones and into the unknown since man had discovered fire.
Sparks suddenly began to dance across the canopy. No, that's not right. They're in front of the ship. He looked back to Deetz questioningly. "High energy particles coming off the planet. A gas giant like this puts off some serious radiation, if they're concentrated and intense enough they interact with the collision shields." The synth hadn't had to look up when Jason turned back to answer his unasked question, it had indeed been watching him. Although it could just be a continued curiosity, Jason couldn't shrug off the nagging distrust he had for the alien.
Omega Rising Page 5