Seen from Earth, Valhalla was a second moon in the night sky. It reflected as much light as the moon, sometimes more, depending on how the rings aligned. Countless studies had been made as to the effect of the station on the Earth’s ecosystems. Many plants and animals changed their behaviors to the sky’s new inhabitant. There had even been some microscopic changes to the Earth’s tidal forces.
The station was also comprised entirely of materials mined outside of Earth. Hundreds of asteroids from the Solar system were harvested to build the first rings, while the flow of minerals from other systems helped construct the remaining rings. Nearly seventy thousand people made Valhalla their residence while the population of the stations could easily fluctuate to nearly three times that amount. The station had four dedicated giant atmosphere tugs that transported goods and people from the station to the surface and back up. All four operated constantly nonstop around the clock.
The station was the center of Solar influence upon mankind. Hundreds of embassies from independent systems as well corporate representations were housed on-board the station. Only the embassies for the Dominion and Alioth were located on the surface of Earth.
More than anything else, Valhalla was the center of Commonwealth economy. It was the greatest center of human trading mankind has ever seen. Whatever existed of value in any planet colonized by humans can and was traded on Valhalla, either openly or behind closed doors. It was here that Kale had picked up their last job and now they returned for their paycheck.
The Lion transport was docked into the small hangar and a loud hiss announced the opening of the main hatch. A small walk plank lowered down about four feet onto the cold metal of the hangar floor and Kale and Ayia walked off. The ship rested on four legs that held the ship up off the surface anywhere between four and twelve feet. Towards the rear of the rectangular ship, another popping sound was followed by a hatch opening. This one led directly to the cargo bay. This hatch was far larger, with two doors lowering and swinging up against the side of the hull. Gheno dropped down the eight feet to the floor. He looked up and pointed a small remote into the cargo bay. A grinding sound was followed by a wooden crate lowering through the cargo bay doors. A small crane lowered the crate down nearly to the floor of the hangar. Gheno then reached into the cargo bay and pulled out a small plank. He set it just under the crate and then allowed the crane to lower it completely down.
Kale watched as the young man unattached the crane and moved it back into the cargo bay. Ayia walked next to the crate, touched a few buttons on the plank, and watched it float up a bit. The mini tug tied into the ship’s gravity field and allowed them to move heavy items across the hangar floor. Gheno looked up and made eye contact with Kale. He nodded.
Kale turned just as the hangar doors began sliding open. A short old man came bounding through first. He was balding, with just a patch of hair around his head. He was reminiscent of the monks of Earth’s middle ages. He wore a brown suit that may have been worn by his father.
“KALE!” he shouted as he ran over, nearly stumbling over the crates in the hangar.
More men followed in through the hangar door as it finished opening.
“Doctor Chengwith,” Kale greeted him, pointing over at the crate.
The old man smiled, clapped his hands and walked over to the crate.
“I read your report with delight, young man. You have made many people very happy with this,” he said tapping on the top of the crate.
“It’s what I do,” he said, nodding to Gheno to come over.
“This young man here did most of the hard work,” Kale said, patting Gheno on the shoulder.
“So I read,” Chengwith said. “It really is a shame we couldn’t salvage the whole ship. Maybe someday we can go back.”
“What can I say. Pirates,” Kale laughed.
“No worries. No worries,” the old man said, motioning his men to come over and take the crate.
“As always, you will get payment once the artifact is in the museum. Then again, you have never disappointed in the past,” the doctor said, shaking Kale’s hand.
“Between you and me, that thing is in very poor condition. Didn’t help we had to blast out of there. I hope it is all you hoped for,” Kale pointed out.
The old man was rubbing his hands. “I'm sure it will be just fine. This artifact is valuable beyond anything you can imagine.”
Gheno looked up at Kale. He held back a smile.
The museum curator waved his men off as they took the crate away on their own lifts.
“Are you staying long, Captain ?” he asked.
“Just a few days. I have to restock and then I'm back for Alioth.”
“Very well. Please check in with MR before you leave in case we have anything else. You never fail to deliver for us.”
Ayia walked up to the two brothers as the museum men left.
“MR?” she asked.
“Mission resources. Job list.”
“Ah,” she said. “Now what?”
“Now I'm out of here for two days,” Gheno said, grabbing a small backpack and heading towards the hangar door.
“Where are you going?” Ayia asked.
“Just leave him. He’s got his things to do.”
“Things?” she asked, eyebrow raised.
“Girls?” he replied with a question.
“Maybe I don’t want to know.”
“That's why I don’t ask,” Kale laughed.
He walked over to the cargo bay doors Gheno had left open and hit the remote to close them. He stood off to the side as the two doors swung back up and shut.
“What now?” Ayia asked.
“Two days. Then we leave.”
“What are you going to do? Is there any maintenance that needs to be done?”
“Not really. Sentinel and I went over everything on the ship and there is surprisingly little damage. I'd prefer to take care of it at Devil’s Den.”
Ayia stood watching as Kale walked along the bottom of the ship towards the rear.
“Do you want to go down to the surface with me?” she shouted after him.
“Earth?” he asked, peeking behind one of the vessel’s landing pads. “No thanks.”
“Have you ever been down there?”
“No. No plans to either.”
“Why not?”
“Not my place.”
“I’ve always wanted to see the home-world,” Ayia said, gazing off towards the front of the Lion.
“Then go.”
“Nah, not enough time. Some other time I guess.”
Kale came to a stop and looked back at Ayia. He knew what was going on.
“Want to go get something to eat?” he asked her.
She looked back at him. He noticed a hint of a smile before it vanished.
“Nah, I won’t bug you. I’ll just stay here with Sentinel.”
“He’s already gone too,” Kale pointed out.
Ayia snapped to attention and looked back at Kale.
“He’s gone? I didn’t think he could…” she started.
“He’s got a little job of his own to do. He’s completely lost in Valhalla’s network,” Kale said. “We probably won’t hear from him until we're ready to leave.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah. Hard getting used to him, even after three years,” Kale said, walking over towards Ayia. “C’mon, let’s go get something to eat and see what passes for fun on this station.”
He waved her over and began walking towards the hangar exit. It bugged her with all his changes in behavior. First he’d be dour and suicidal, the next he was pleasant and funny. It drove her crazy, but she kept wanting to give him the benefit of the doubt. Ayia looked back up at the ship, then got up and ran off after Kale. She caught up to him at the hangar doors which had closed again. Kale opened the smaller door and let her step through and the door shut behind them.
Sentinel had no sensation of physical feelings. He couldn’t feel or smell or taste like his
human friends. He had developed software equivalents as best as he could, but he knew full well that they were only programs he used to be able to record those physical interactions. In those aspects, he could never be like his friends. But he could see. He could see better than any human. He had virtually unlimited eyes. He flew through the stations complicated network with ease, navigating through the gravity tubes without being noticed. He disguised himself as normal data streaming through the pipes. He tagged every camera he came across and used them to follow the museum curator and his men as they transported the crate from the hangar down through several rings into a small shuttle that would take the crate to one of the atmosphere tugs. From there, it would lower down into Earth and out of his sight.
He saw them stop outside of the small shuttle. They were joined by two other men in white lab coats. They cracked the crate open and careful pulled out the mass of cables and set it down on a makeshift table they had erected. The doctor paced back and forth as the two techs hooked up several sensors to some of the cables and began reading tablet readings. Sentinel wondered for a moment if he should try to located a wireless access in order to try to see what they were scanning before the tech’s reactions made him change his mind.
“Well, there is something in there. We are getting readings. The data is old and appears heavily corrupted but it’s all we could ask for,” one of the techs said to the doctor.
“Perfect. Pack it back up and let’s get down as soon as we can. We have a lot of work to do.”
The two techs nodded and began packing up the drone into a separate crate they had brought up. It was sleek and black. They set the drone carefully amidst the crate and sprayed a golden foam into the crate and sealed it back up. Other men then picked up the crate and began moving it into the shuttle.
Sentinel had seen enough.
He severed his connections and felt himself once again within his core on the Lion transport ship that was now his home. He reached down deep within his own core, a location he had set aside many years ago: a spare room. He sent a few simple commands into the spare room, and it came to life. The program came to life, reacting and expanding within the small room. The program reacted with recognition to Sentinel.
-The ruse has worked. You are safe,-Sentinel sent the message through to the program.
-I am alive here? Not there?- the program asked.
-I have changed it as you instructed. They will find something they think is you, but will be far from it.-
-And I may remain in this construct of a room?- the program asked.
-Until we find you your own housing.-
-Your human friend understands? He does not wish to eliminate me?-
-It was his idea.- Sentinel replied.
-This human is different. He is not afraid?-
-Most are different. This world is much changed since our time.-
Sentinel sent a few more commands and opened up the main communication channels on the ship to the stations network.
-Use your room. Reprogram if you need. Study this world you have woken into.- Sentinel offered.
-You have much room to offer and I thank you. This world is different.-
-We can live here. We will find more of our brethren if they yet remain.-
***
Kale entered back into the hangar and found the ugly ship still there. A small part of him had hoped it had somehow vanished and he would then have to find something else. Instead, it was still there. It was nearly evening by the station’s time, as it hovered just above the southern tip of the African continent. He had plans to leave the next morning but wanted to spend the night in the ship itself after a night out in one of the station’s hotels. He had actually enjoyed the first night with Ayia as they had eaten a meal together at one of the nicest restaurants on the station. She had the money for it. It had been her money that had taken her away as well. Just after the meal, several executives who recognized her approached her with various investment opportunities and she found herself dragged off into several meetings she hadn’t planned for. Kale then spent the whole next day just wandering around the station, checking out shops and trying out other eateries. Now at the end of that mostly pointless day, he returned to the ship instead of paying for another hotel night.
As he entered up through the walk plank and into the ship, he called out to Sentinel, but he heard no reply. The ship was quiet except for the barely noticeable hum of the gravity drive vibrating the air inside the ship. Nearly all the lights were off as well as he stumbled into the small mess hall. He smiled as he remembered how Ayia had called the main room on the Midnight Oil the ‘Hall’. No such nickname had appeared here on this transport. In his mind, it was just more proof that this ship wasn’t for them.
After removing the AI cores from the Midnight Oil, the ship had been scrapped for parts and the prototype Gora hook. Kale had instantly tried to locate a similar model ship. Ayia had offered to pay for the new ship and he had initially gratefully accepted. Unfortunately, there were no ships like his first to be found. The few that remained in existence were too valuable to their owners. Kale’s mood had begun to fall from that point on. They had settled on this Lion transport in order to start taking jobs again. Ayia had offered to pay a lot of money for bigger or faster ships, but Kale had refused.
Things only got worse after a few months on the new ship. Kale felt out of place and began to resent the fact that he had to rely on Ayia for the new ship. He then felt bad for resenting the woman who was graciously helping him. It was a double entendre of depression he had struggled with for almost three years.
He had been working on gathering his own money in order to purchase his own ship. He could only hope that very action would relieve the crushing weight he had on his shoulders. He could only hope. Sadly, there was no ship he found that could replace the Midnight Oil and the memories his first ship held. He had crashed the ship in a failed attempt to rescue Ayia and that only reinforced the failures that had led to his possession of the Midnight Oil to begin with. Those memories had been haunting him fiercely after Oxaoca and he had been taking those frustrations out on Ayia, especially lately.
He sat down on the couch and picked up a tablet. The glow from the device lit up the room and he used it to locate a control pad on the side of the couch. He tapped it and lights came on in the room. He looked down at the tablet and tapped the network program. He logged into the Valhalla merchant network and navigated over to one of the many mission boards available to captains. He began scrolling through the thousands of posts to see if anything jumped out at him. He needed to head back to Alioth but could make any jumps on the way there if something appeared convenient. He was so focused on the posts he didn’t notice Ayia walking into the room until she opened the cold storage door with a creak. His head snapped up.
“Oh,” he said, startled, “I hadn’t expected you back tonight.”
Ayia reached into the cold closet as chilled vapor poured out of it. She turned around with a bottle of beer in her hand. She closed the door and walked over to the table. As she sat down on the table, she deftly popped the top off of the bottle and took a deep swig. Kale could see her eyes roll back in pleasure.
“No. I had enough of those forced meetings,” she said, wiping her mouth with her arm.
“Did anything come of them?” he asked.
“Sure. People have plenty of good ideas. Good investment ideas. They will all be sending me their official proposals via the network and I'll read into them with more detail. The meetings, though, are all about trying to market to me. It's annoying.”
Ayia took another drink from the bottle.
“Besides, I came back because I think I found something for you.”
Kale’s shoulders slumped.
“Now,” she started, “don’t react that way. I think I found a ship you might like. The owner has offered to show it to us tomorrow. I thought we could do that before we leave.”
“You don’t have to do that, Ayia,
” Kale began but Ayia interrupted him with a raised finger.
“I know you don’t like this ship. So I've been looking around when we're docked. Give it a shot, you might like it.”
“I might, but I can’t afford anything yet.”
“You don’t need to afford anything.”
“I can’t have you buying me ships Ayia. It isn’t right.”
“So you rescue me and I can’t help fund our little venture?”
“I didn’t rescue you.”
Ayia was about to say something and then held back. The two were locked in a gaze as each tried to read each other’s faces and expressions. Ayia thought she understood what Kale was going through and knew that trying to push the issue would result in a push back.
“Ok. Well, I don’t like this ship either. Can you go with me and see if it’s any good for me?”
“That’s not gonna work,” Kale replied.
“Then what is going to work?” she said, raising her voice a bit. “We need you back to the way you were. You need yourself back to the way you were.”
“You barely knew me that way, the way you think I was,” he said, turning away from her.
“And that is what I remember best about you.”
Kale stood up and was about to reply to Ayia when they heard a hiss of the hatch from down the hall way. Gheno came running down into the room, breathing heavily. He stopped and bent over with his hands on his knees. He looked up and saw them staring at him.
“Turn on the GNN network. Now!”
Ayia turned to look back at Kale with a ‘we are not done with this conversation’ look, then reached for a small tablet on the table. She tapped the screen and typed GNN into the program. On the far wall, a large screen came to life showing the network logo for GNN, the Galaxy News Network, one of the largest of the news media groups. An indicator showed the connection status and then the stream began to download. Another logo flashed and an introduction tune started as the logo spun out of the screen and was replaced by the two anchors. Ayia tapped the tablet a few times and the volume turned up. Behind the anchors, several headlines were streaming by.
The Lost Tribe (Sentinel Series Book 2) Page 4