by William Wood
“What happened?” He asked.
“I wish I knew,” Calvin said. “The ship lost power.”
“No kidding,” Dev said dryly. “I got that much. How did it happen?”
“I don’t know. Astra and Ion are in the engine room trying to figure it out. How is everyone else doing? Have you checked on them?”
“Nils and Wexton are all right. Petori and Freks aren’t doing so well after Wexton chewed them out.”
“I’m not sure yelling at them is going to be enough,” Calvin said.
“Oh, trust me,” Dev said. “He had them standing at attention, screaming at them up one side and down the other. It wasn’t pretty.”
“Hmmm,” Calvin said. He was still very troubled about Petori and Freks running off to fight Goremog attack robots while the black hole expanded around them. They put the whole mission at risk because they wanted to get revenge for the death of Barouke Len. He had no idea how they were going to deal with them, but they would do it later; they had bigger problems to solve first.
“I’ll go to the engine room and see if they need help,” Dev said.
“Good idea,” Calvin said. “Tell them to hurry up. We’re entirely too vulnerable right now, and I don’t like it.”
“Oh, I’m sure that will help,” Dev said. “I’ll tell them the Captain’s unhappy.”
Calvin sat back again and smiled. He liked Dev. It was almost like having Jax back; their sarcasm was similar and they were both loyal. That’s why it was going to be hard for Calvin when they dropped Dev off on Ohnia Prime, the last Tryvellen colony. In fact, he was dreading it. Calvin wanted to talk Dev into staying on Azure Frost. They could really use his help. But Calvin knew how he would feel if it were him. He would do whatever it took to take care of his people. Maybe Calvin could say that helping them find the rest of the super-weapon and defeat the Goremog was the best way he could help the Tryvellen people. Not just them, but every other species out there that the Goremog were hunting down and destroying. But he thought he knew what the answer would be. Dev had already declined the offer. He didn’t want to hear Dev refuse again.
How long would it take to get power back online? Calvin tried to relax and be patient. He tried to remind himself there was nothing he could do, but he wasn’t very good at being patient, and he hated having to wait.
He sat back in the comfortable padded chair and stared out into space. His thoughts wandered as he drummed on the console. Calvin was totally unaware of how much time had passed; he sat there until he couldn’t any longer. He had to do something. Maybe it was his imagination, but it felt cold and the air seemed a little thin. Calvin got up and left the bridge. He stepped out into the dark corridor; lit only by soft red emergency lights. The silence was scary. A loud clang from further down in the darkness made him jump. His heart beat faster, and he reminded himself that he was safe. There were no monsters on board the ship. That led to a nasty thought; what if Dark Terrors got aboard? It would have been easy, when everyone was unconscious. ‘What am I doing? Why am I leaving the bridge?’ Calvin turned and hurried back to his chair and reminded himself there wasn’t anything else he could do.
He was relieved when the lights turned on and the computers came to life with a soft whirring noise. Best of all the oxygen pumps began humming and heat flowed from the vents.
His main monitor lit up, with only one word displayed in the middle; initiating.
The speakers popped, and Astra’s voice filled the air, “Calvin, can you hear me?”
“Astra,” Calvin said. “Yes, I can hear you.”
“Every system on the ship overloaded when we passed through the special anomaly and to prevent serious damage Ion shut it all down. We have to reinitialize them one at a time.”
“The computers up here just turned on.”
“That was automatic. We did life support first. I want to activate the sensors next.”
“Why the sensors,” Calvin asked. “I would think we’d want to cloak first.”
“We need to see if there are Goremog ships near us, so we’ll know how much time we have.”
“OK,” Calvin said. He didn’t want to argue. The more time they spent discussing it the less time they spent fixing the ship.
“Relax,” Astra said. “This won’t take long.” The main monitor changed, and an image of the short range sensors filled the screen.
“There we go,” Calvin said, smiling. “The sensors are up.”
Calvin scanned the screen. There were no red dots but the system was analyzing something large floating all around them. What could it be? He changed the view, and clicked on a large piece of debris that was spewing massive amounts of radiation into space. The computer reported that it was an engine core. Calvin was confused until he realized what it was.
“Do you see anything?” Astra asked.
“No, the screen is clear, but I found the remains of the Goremog battleship that was sucked into the black hole before us. There’s debris everywhere, and radiation. Do you think it’s interfering with the sensors?”
“It’s possible,” Astra said. “At least there’s nothing active out there. We’ll start working on the engines, then the cloak and shields.”
“Sounds good.”
Calvin checked again. There scanner was still clear. That helped him to stop worrying, but he would feel even better when the cloak was back on and they were underway.
The next hour passed slowly, Calvin sat monitoring each system as it came back and gave feedback to the engine room. When everything was up and running Astra and Ion returned to the bridge. Astra sat down in her seat and was busy immediately, clicking buttons, setting monitors the way she liked them.
Ion took his seat at the main computer. “Long range sensors are now online,” he said. “However, radiation in this region of space is creating a great deal of interference. I suggest we get some distance as soon as possible.”
“Do you know what’s causing it?” Calvin asked.
“I think so,” Astra said. “I was able to access one of the computers we took from the lab and I found out what they were doing. As I suspected, that wasn’t a black hole. The scientists were trying to create an artificial worm hole that could transport a space ship thousands of light years across space in a few seconds. Unfortunately, the experiment was a failure. But the real problem for us is the collapsed wormhole is what created the massive disturbance all around us. We can’t jump into hyperspace until we clear it.”
“If it was a wormhole, why did it tear the Goremog battleship to pieces?” Calvin asked.
“I suspect the scientists programed it to destroy Goremog ships,” Astra said. “Instead of giving them safe passage. That’s what I would have done.”
“That makes sense,” Calvin said. “How far did it take us?”
“Seventeen light years,” Astra answered. “Not too bad. Wow, if we could perfect that technology, we could jump around from one segment to the next.”
“That would give us a huge advantage,” Calvin said.
“I see they were also studying the idea of a personal wormhole generator. Image that; travel from one planet to another without using a ship at all.”
“Sounds too good to be true.”
“More than likely, just an idea,” Astra said.
“How long will it take to clear this area and be able to jump into hyperspace?”
“One hour,” Astra answered. “Possibly two.”
“OK, I’ll set a course,” Calvin said.
“Ion can do that,” Astra said. “Ion, please set a course for the sixth segment. Take us into hyperspace as soon as we clear the area.”
“Yes mistress,” Ion said.
“Come on Calvin,” Astra said. “Let’s go eat, I’m starved.” That sounded very good to him. He was completely exhausted, and hungry. Either Astra wasn’t as tired as he was or she was experiencing a second wind. Either way, he had a hard time keeping up with her. He stumbled after her to the dining room. When the
y got there, Astra picked what she wanted quickly and took her tray to the table. Calvin stared at the machine, unable to decide. He was hungry, but he didn’t feel like eating. He decided to get a bowl of vegetable soup and a sandwich. The machine quickly processed his order. Calvin picked it up and sat across from Astra.
After a moment, Calvin asked “How long will it take to get to the sixth segment?”
“I can’t remember.” She laughed. “That’s how tired I am.” They both laughed. “I think it’s about three weeks, or, something like that.”
“So we get to rest.”
“Yes,” Astra said. “We’ll have plenty of time to rest on the way.”
“Good. I’m going to try and contact my Father, and then get some sleep. I’ve got a lot to tell him.”
“That sounds good,” Astra said. Then she hesitated before asking, “Have you told him about me?”
“Of course,” Calvin said.
“What did he say?”
“He said he was happy for me, and he wants to meet you.”
Astra smiled. “I would love to meet your parents.”
“Are you going to try and contact yours?” He asked.
“Yes, I’ll try to later.”
Calvin ate the last bite of his sandwich. He was glad he forced himself to eat. He felt much better.
They said good night, and went to their rooms. Calvin fell asleep quickly, happy the journey to find the sixth segment was finally underway.
Early the next morning, Calvin was walking down the corridor towards the dining room. He had hadn’t planned on getting up early, but he couldn’t sleep. He was hungry, and ready for breakfast. On his way, he ran into Astra.
Calvin!” She said excited. “You have to come with me. I have something you need to see.”
“What is it?” Calvin asked.
“Trouble,” she said. “It would be easier to show you.” Calvin followed her to the bridge. “I contacted my parents late last night. They sent this scan to me.” She pointed to the large monitor above the computer station. It was a star map of the sector of space they were in; thousands of planets. Hundreds of them were red.
“Commander Rale took a ship to Pentazian space station in the middle of the galaxy.”
“Pentazian?” Calvin said. “Have you told me about that before?”
“Yes, that’s where we’re supposed to take the super-weapon, once we have all the pieces. My people built a base there, with a massive space radar there that could see the entire universe. Well, with the help of thousands of tiny probes. Anyway, he was able to get it working, and this is what it saw. The red planets are ones that have been taken over, infested by the Dark Terror.” Calvin studied the screen.
“What?” He said in shock. “They’ve spread that far, that fast?”
“Yes. That’s not the worst part, look.” She pointed to a section of the map that had hundreds of gray planets. “This is Goremog territory,” she said. “Look over here.” In the center of Goremog territory was a flashing green light. “That’s the next segment, deep in Goremog space.”
“How long?”
“We’ll enter their territory in two weeks. It will take another week to reach the location of the sixth segment.”
Calvin felt a rush of excitement and terror at the same time. “At least we have time to get ready.”
“Yeah, but will it be enough?”
“It’ll have to be,” Calvin said. “The fate of the entire universe depends on us.”
CHAPTER FOURTY:
DOWN TIME
The sky was dark and the air was blistering hot. Flashes of lightning shot across the black sky. Calvin scrambled up a steep mountainside as quickly as he could. He was in a full panic and had to use his fingernails to claw his way up. When he reached the peak of the tall, jagged mountain, he got a massive shock. He was surrounded by an ocean of lava that stretched off as far as he could see in all directions. There was nowhere to go, and the lava was rising fast. His throat burned and he struggled to breathe. He felt dizzy and knew he was on the verge of succumbing to heat exhaustion.
He found a solid place to stand, and thought he was going to be safe until the ground began to shake. The rocks on the mountain broke apart and fell into the lava, now just a few feet away. Desperate and scared; he knew his life was about to end. Calvin screamed for help and searched the sky for Azure Frost, but it was nowhere to be seen. The ground crumbled beneath him, and he tumbled into the lava.
Calvin bolted upright in bed; terrified and confused. He was covered with sweat and was very thirsty. Disturbed by the vivid images, he got up and got a glass of cold water from the food computer. It took a few minutes for the terror to ebb away.
“So much for sleeping in,” Calvin thought. H e wanted to go back to bed, but now that he was fully awake, there was no way he was going fall back to sleep now.
Astra said it was going to take three weeks to reach the sixth segment. He sat for several minutes, trying to decide how he was going to stay busy. He was hungry, so clearly, eating had to be first. Hopefully he would run into the others and find out what they had planned.
Since he had nothing to do, he took his time getting ready. After he showered, he stood in front of the mirror. The first thing he noticed was his hair. He preferred to have his brown hair short, but now it was long; at least a quarter of an inch over his ears. In fact, it was long enough to comb.
"Definitely out of regs," he muttered to himself, wondering where he could get his hair cut. There was a computer program or robot for everything else, there must be one that could cut hair.
His gaze moved from his hair down to his face. Calvin was surprised at what he saw. He looked older. Was it from the stress? Maybe it was from the combat and near death situations he’d been exposed to since he left home. Whatever it was, it showed on his face. He smiled at himself in the mirror, but even his smile looked a little sad to him.
Calvin dressed and wandered to the dining room. There was nobody else there, but he didn’t care. He went to the food computer and pulled up the breakfast menu. The computer was familiar with his preferences, and offered them on the screen. He selected pancakes, eggs, sausages, and big cup of coffee. Ten seconds later a glass door opened revealing a tray with a plate of hot food and a tall steaming mug. Calvin took it and sat down. The smell was intoxicating. He took his time and enjoyed every bite of food and sip of coffee while he contemplated what he could do to pass the next three weeks.
When he was finished with his meal, he put his tray away and left the dining room with another full cup of coffee in his hand, intent on finding Astra. He stopped by her room first and knocked, but she wasn’t there. Next, he checked the science lab; that’s where he found her.
“Good morning,” she said, smiling.
“Hey,” Calvin said. “You’re up early.”
“I couldn’t sleep, and all I could think about was getting back to
work. Look at this.” Astra pointed to a large computer tha t covered one whole wall. It had thousands of blinking lights, small computer screens, knobs and buttons of all shapes and sizes. On the end, sitting on a table, was the first segment. Two arms hovered over the top of it, emitting a soft blue light.
“When did we get this?” Calvin asked. “This is the new analyzer,” Astra said. “The Alerian scientists installed it during the repair and refit. This thing is amazing.”
“What’s it doing?”
“Scanning the first segment at a subatomic level; something we couldn’t do before. You see, I knew the first segment was a power generator, but had no way of knowing if it was damaged. Now I can. But, that’s not the best part. You’ll love this; I can make a copy of the segment with this machine. Well, every segment.”
“Really?” Calvin said.
“Yes!” Astra said excitedly. “A perfect copy.”
“Why make a copy?” Calvin asked confused. He was already feeling uneasy about possessing a weapon that was capable of extreme destruction, but h
aving more than one weapon? That was more power than anyone should have.
“I wanted to run tests on it, but I was afraid of damaging it. Now I can experiment on the copy.”
“I suppose that’s a good idea,” Calvin said.
“Of course it’s a good idea,” Astra said, talking very fast. Calvin wondered how much coffee she’d had.
“And when I’m done,” Astra continued. “We’ll have an extra power generator. I mean, when was the last time you heard someone say, ‘we have too much power’?”
“Good point,” Calvin said. “That reminds me; my father asked if we could send him a detailed scan of each segment.”
“That won’t be a problem,” Astra said without hesitation. “I should be able to compress the information into something that will fit in a standard data stream. The results from the new analyzer are so detailed; your people will be able to make their own segments.”
Calvin was disappointed that Astra had agreed so quickly. On one hand, a super weapon in the hands of the Laurite Group made Calvin cringe, especially when he thought of individuals such as Captain Vinder having access to it. But on the other hand, they had to be able to defend themselves. Hopefully, they wouldn’t have to, if they were able to destroy the Goremog.
“I suppose it will have to be encrypted,” Calvin said.
“Obviously. So what are your plans for today?”
“I don’t know. I haven’t decided yet. I was thinking about going back to the simulator. It’s been a while. I was just getting into the advanced combat training.”
“That’s great,” Astra said. “Keep it up and you’ll be the best pilot in the fleet.”
“I thought I already was,” Calvin said smiling.
“You’re funny,” Astra said, giggling. “You need more practice.”
Before he left, Calvin noticed Scribbles lying on a table in the corner, next to a computer.
“What’s wrong with Scribbles?” Calvin asked.
“She was running low on power. Have you noticed that every time she’s recharged, her power cycles get shorter and shorter? This last time, her battery wouldn’t even hold a charge for five minutes. I decided to run a diagnostic.”