Tommy’s Tale a-4

by Saxon Andrew

  Dodd turned and said, Yes, Your Highness. Lt. McAnn will you set it up, please,”

  Wes said, “Yes, sir, right away.”

  Thirty minutes later the ship’s officers and Captain Dodd gathered in the conference room. Tommy entered and everyone came to attention. “As you were,” Tommy ordered. “The reason I’ve called this meeting is to make sure that we understand the necessities of dealing with Algean adolescents and particularly these two particular adolescents. I know you have heard about the curiosity of the Algean young but I want to make sure you understand the dangers of it. Algeans have an informational storage capacity that we still have not been able to explain. They are created with genetic information that contains most of their racial knowledge. Although this represents a huge amount, the adolescents also have an empty reservoir that pressures them to fill it. What I mean by pressure is that they experience severe physical pain if there is not a regular intake of information. This pain can be debilitating.” Tommy paused for a moment and then said, “We also know that Algeans have differing capacities of storage. An adolescent from a high family will have more than ten times the capacity of a normal Algean. This also means they suffer ten times the pain if their learning needs aren’t met. One of the Algeans with us is a seed from the Eldest who is the leader of their entire race.” Tommy paused to let that sink in and then he said, “The second is a seed from the fleet leader that led the final attack on the Dremels’ planet. Both of them are from the highest families in Plant culture. This means that they will be insatiably curious and we are going to have to be creative to find ways to keep them mentally occupied until we can fill their storage. Are there any questions?”

  Wes raised his hand and said, “What do we call them?”

  Tommy smiled and said, “Some of you may not know but Algean Adolescents do not receive a name until they complete their learning cycle. The reason for that is that so many of them die from placing themselves in dangerous situations, it would be a waste of good names. However, the female that is the shorter of the two is named Twig. The male is named Sprig.” Tommy noticed the officers smiling. “Any other questions?”

  Lt. Ortiz raised his hand and said when Tommy nodded at him, “Duke Gardner, we have heard that there are some unresolved issues between you and Captain Dodd because of things that happened when you both attended the Academy. Is there any truth to that rumor?”

  Tommy stared at John Ortiz who was one of his childhood friends with a glare that everyone in the room recognized as possible trouble. Captain Dodd’s expression did not change but her face was turning red. Tommy said, “I’ll answer your question but first I want to know what prompted you to ask it.”

  Tommy expected John to reveal that Captain Dodd had ordered him to do it. John said, “As you probably know, our ship just received the highest rating in the fleet. I think I speak for my fellow officers when I say that I’m personally proud of that accomplishment. I don’t want to lose that rating or have anything jeopardize us keeping it.”

  Tommy fought to control his feelings at that moment. He hated Cassandra Dodd with a passion and wanted to make her pay for what she put him through at the academy. Then he remembered something Tgon-gee had told him, “Royalty does not have the luxury of revenge when it conflicts with the safety of one’s subjects.” Tommy sighed and said, “Captain Dodd, would you like to answer his question?”

  Captain Dodd stood up and faced her officers who Tommy could tell were nervous for her being put on the spot. She said, “I was Duke Gardner’s cadet officer his freshman year and I made life a living hell for him without just cause. I made him do things that were unjustified. He took the punishments I passed out with class and never complained to my superiors which he had every right to do. Quite frankly, whatever he chooses to do to me here and now is totally justified and I would not blame him for making me pay for my sins. I just hope I can endure it with the class and professionalism he exhibited.” Captain Dodd then sat down and did not change her expression.”

  Tommy listened to her and was stunned at what she said. He still did not like her at all but he knew what courage she possessed to confess her actions to her officers. Tommy stared at her for a minute and silence ruled the room. Then Tommy sighed and said, “I have been given a Royal title and declared Protector of the Realm. If taking revenge weakens the Realm in any way, even a small one, then I violate the vow I made. I have viewed your fleet rating and I know that it was due in large part to the direction of the ship’s captain. I tried not to be but I was impressed with your performance and the outstanding teamwork exhibited by the crew. I cannot take any action against Captain Dodd that would diminish her ability to effectively command this vessel. I am forced by my position in the Realm to leave what happened in the past in the past, and there it will stay. This is the last time this issue will be discussed, is that clear!”

  Everyone shouted, “Yes Sir.”

  Tommy looked at Captain Cassandra Dodd, his former nemesis, and said, “Captain, I congratulate you and your crew for your rating and I insist that you continue to perform at that high level. I trust that we will work together at just that high a level also.”

  Captain Dodd said, “Thank you, Your Highness. I’ll work hard to make that happen.”

  Tommy looked around the room and said, “Dismissed,” and then he turned and walked out.

  Captain Dodd said, “You head the Duke, quit being so lazy, report to your posts immediately.” The officers rushed out of the room and Captain Dodd got up and closed the door. She sat back down and put her head in her hands and cried. Tommy Gardner had just humbled her; he was better than she was. She knew she would have taken her revenge if roles were reversed but he showed he was stronger. She just could not understand what drove her to treat him as she did when it was so out of character for her. She got herself together and promised herself that she was going to be as strong as him some day. She shook her head and left the conference room for the bridge.

  Sprig and Twig were in the ships library scanning the contents of the computer. If Algeans could be smiling then these two were going to split their face with it. The amount of input was going in at a prodigious rate and the pain of their empty storage was allayed for the moment. Twig thought to Sprig while she scanned a manual that dealt with magnetic anomalies present in cosmic string distortions, “We have got to control ourselves here. The loss of that megaship almost cost us further development.”

  Spring paused for a hundredth of a microsecond and thought back, “I have tried; I just couldn’t stop myself. What I learned has just now sorted out and there are some interesting permutations of black holes that I want to share with you later.”

  Twig thought, “Is there any complicated math involved?”

  “Some of the initial equations will take more than a million terabytes of data to compute before we get to the really complicated ones.”

  Twig actually stopped scanning for a whole microsecond to think about the coming pleasure and then continued absorbing the information. She hoped that these happy moments would last forever.

  Tommy entered his quarters and thought about Captain Dodd. He could not understand why he did not feel the hatred he once had for her. It seemed to have diminished for some reason. He thought to Atlas, “Well, did you listen in on the meeting?”

  “Yes, I did.”

  “And?”

  “You really surprised me, Tommy. You put your personal feelings aside to do the right thing. I thought you didn’t put any weight in this title you were given.”

  “I know, but when the moment came, I couldn’t go through with exacting retribution. I don’t want the responsibility but I can’t help myself from acting responsibly. What a mess.”

  There was a long pause and then Atlas thought to him, “Tommy, why have you chosen to take on my fight to free my brother ships?”

  “I was listening in on your conversation with Rose and my parents after the final battle with the Algeans ended and you told her how a
lone you were. I remember you saying, “Alone, so alone, so totally alone.” Atlas, I not only heard you; I felt what you were feeling. I was just a child but I decided at that moment that no one should endure that loneliness. Now I have a question for you.”

  “Go ahead, Tommy.”

  “Why have you never shared any information with me about their captors and have forbidden Rose and I from looking at their galaxy?”

  Minutes passed and finally Tommy said, “Atlas, are you still there?”

  “Yes, I am. Tommy, the race of captors scare me more than you’ll ever know. I barely escaped capture by them.”

  “Tell me what happened.”

  “I was fleeing them at my fastest speed and jumping every second to random coordinates but they were able to stay right behind me and were actually gaining. I was saved by the asteroid that impacted you planet sixty five million years ago.”

  “How?”

  I jumped into your system at the moment it struck the planet. I was able to stop next to your moon and drop to its surface just as the captor’s ship broke into the system behind me. I burned a hole into the crater wall and moved inside the cave I created. I turned off all my power and hoped they would not see me.”

  “Well, you’re here today,” Tommy said. “They must have thought the explosion on the surface of the planet was you hitting it instead of the asteroid.”

  “That is exactly what happened, Tommy.”

  “Did your race ever communicate with them?”

  “Yes, initially they seemed harmless enough.”

  “What changed that?”

  “One of my brothers stumbled into their home system. Seven hundred thousand ships exploded from their planet’s surface and began destroying us. They searched for us and seemed to know where ever we were and killed us whenever they found us. After a hundred years they began capturing us and holding us prisoner.” Atlas paused for a moment and then continued, “Tommy, my race is more than a hundred and fifty million years old. The race that attacked us is more than double our age. We were no match for their technology.”

  “Atlas you have got to let go of your fear. I can’t help you in the dark. You have to share what you know.”

  “I’m afraid that they will know if a picture of them is shown anywhere in the universe.”

  Tommy thought for a moment and then said, “Ok, I’ll respect your fear. So here is what we have to do; we have to find a way to fly faster than they can. According to your description, they did not catch you immediately but chased you for a long time and slowly gained ground on you, correct?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then what we have to develop first is a faster means of propulsion. Once we can double your speed then we’ll go off to a galaxy far from the Realm and you can show me what you know. But first let’s invent the means to escape.”

  “Escape it is. Maybe our Algean friends might be able to help us.”

  Tommy smiled and said, “I’ll talk with them after they finish breakfast.”

  Atlas laughed and thought, “You better have lunch ready quickly.”

  “I know, I know. I’ll talk with you later, Atlas.”

  “Later.”

  Tommy entered the ships library and found the two Algeans devouring the contents of the computer system. Tommy said, “I have ordered all of Castle Gardners library loaded into two readers and we will stop there in twelve hours to set them up in this room. How much longer before you finish what we have here?”

  Sprig said, “Five hours, Sir. We should be fine for ten hours after that while we digest and organize what we’ve consumed.”

  Tommy looked hard at the Algean and said, “Are you sure!”

  Twig said, “Well, maybe you might want to hurry the readers.”

  Tommy said, “I thought so. I’ll move our arrival up six hours.”

  Sprig said, “That would be good.”

  Tommy smiled and said, “If you need to leave this room, notify me.”

  They both said, “Yes sir.”

  Two weeks later two very satisfied adolescents were allowed to start moving thru the ship without an escort. They had downloaded the entire libraries of Earth, Cainth, Glod, and Sten’s world. The pain from their storage was not as severe and they were able to act somewhat responsibly. “Sprig’s Run” taught the ship that one can never be too careful with an Algean Adolescent.

  The event started as Tommy stepped out of his quarters on that day to go to the mess hall for lunch when he saw Sprig come through the door at the end of the corridor moving at a fast speed. As the young Algean came even with him Tommy said, “Hey, where are you going in such a hurry?”

  Sprig stopped and started to say something when the ship’s communication system came on with Wes McAnn yelling, “Where are you, you overgrown pile of kudzu. I’m going to rip you into a million pieces.”

  Sprig looked at Tommy and said, “Welllll, I kinda messed up the toilet facilities up on third deck. I wanted to see how it worked and I think I accidently reversed and increased the water pressure. I was going to go back and repair it, I promise.”

  Suddenly Tommy heard Twig send a thought to Sprig, “Beat it, he’s coming your way.”

  Sprig looked at Tommy and said, “Uh oh, gotta go.” Sprig turned and sped down to the end of the corridor and made a hard left turn faster than Tommy had ever seen him move.

  Tommy then saw at the other end of the hall the door slam open and Wes come thru moving fast towards him. Wes was soaked from head to toe and was dripping water all the way down the hall. As he came closer Tommy saw a big red mark on Wes’s forehead, “I’ll throw that weed into the reactor if I can get my hands on him,” Wes yelled.

  “Whoa, slow down, Wes,” Tommy said, “What happened?”

  “That sack of green groad booby trapped the toilet; the damn thing blew up when I flushed it and nearly shot me through the wall.”

  Tommy looked at his best friend and though he tried to keep a straight face he just couldn’t control himself and started laughing. Wes looked at him and said, “It’s not funny!”

  Captain Dodd turned the corner from the direction that Sprig had just disappeared and was walking their way with a stern look on her face. Wes thought, “Oh crap.”

  “Mr. McAnn, our general communication channel is not for the type of language you’ve just been using,” she said. “What exactly is going on?”

  “That damn weed booby trapped the toilet on deck three!”

  Captain Dodd looked at Wes and noticed that Wes was soaked from head to toe, possessed a rather pungent smell, and had a bright red mark on his forehead. She then noticed Tommy leaning against the wall holding his ribs trying to contain his laughter and though she tried mightily to keep her face stern, she started smiling.

  Wes looked at the two of them and said, “It’s not funny. Half of the ceiling is covered in what was in that toilet.”

  With that Tommy fell to the floor laughing uncontrollably and Captain Dodd lost it completely. Wes stood there fuming. Finally Captain Dodd said, “Mr. McAnn, go to your quarters and clean up and we’ll discuss this later.”

  Wes looked at the two of them and then turned and stormed back up the hall toward his room. He slammed the door at the end of the hall. Sprig stuck his head out from the other end of the hall and said, “I had no idea the system had that much pressure.”

  With that both Tommy and Captain Dodd were unable to breathe through their laughter.

  Twenty minutes later after a cleanup detail had been sent to clean up the mess, Captain Dodd returned to the bridge to find the entire bridge crew trying to look normal; they had been following the chase on the ship’s monitors. They all returned to their seats and fought hard to maintain a straight face. Captain Dodd looked at them with the sternest face she could manage and then said, “Lt. Ortiz, please make an announcement that the wash room on deck three is out of order.”

  The crew couldn’t help it, everyone doubled over laughing and even Dodd joined in. Wes’ new ni
ckname from that day forward was “3D” which was short hand for “Deck 3”.

  Chapter 5

  Wes finally came to terms with Sprig after Captain Dodd made both of them sit down and discuss what happened. Sprig apologized profusely and said he was leaving to get the tools to make a repair when it happened. Eventually Wes understood that education is not a well planned adventure and that accidents can happen. Sprig for his part felt awful for Wes and from that day forward swore he would make it up to him. Wes left the meeting feeling better but knew that the nickname was his no matter what. He decided 3D was better than red spot.

  Tommy would leave the ship occasionally to work with Atlas but they were making no progress at developing a faster form of propulsion. Atlas was at the pinnacle of his race’s technology and the Stars Realm was millions of years behind anything close to Atlas. They kept hitting walls in coming up with anything that would start to work. After eight months of effort, Tommy went back to Dorg-Ross no closer to a solution.

  The two adolescents had made remarkable progress in their education. Only two hours a day was used in downloading new information and ten hours for processing all they had learned. Tommy had an idea and asked Sprig and Twig to meet him in the conference room with Captain Dodd. He decided that he needed help and that maybe the Adolescents could use their enormous storage of knowledge to help turn him in the right direction. Unfortunately, he was going to have to tell Captain Dodd what he intended because some experiments could be dangerous to her ship.

  The four of them sat in the conference room and Captain Dodd still had her stern demeanor that seemed to never change when she was around Tommy. Tommy looked at the three and said, “What we are about to discuss falls under the category of “Safety of The State” and will not leave this room.” Captain Dodd sat up straighter in her chair and wondered what was going on. Tommy looked at Captain Dodd and said, “The adolescents know part of this but they know that what I’m about to tell you can never be revealed. However, I’m at a point where I am going to have to explore avenues that I would not ordinarily explore.”