She then practically fell into the other seat, strapping herself in. Her last latch was attached as she looked up at the cartographer. It was flashing red too, now, a warning. They were entering the atmosphere of Cirrus. She felt dizzy and like she was going to vomit, but she blacked out before she could.
93
Callista opened her eyes to see Charlotte staring at her. Seeing her awaken, Charlotte called Carl over to them. He shined a light into Callista’s eyes, and did some other tests she wasn’t completely aware of.
“Callie,” Charlotte said, “look at me. Follow my finger with your eyes.” Callista watched as Charlotte held up her index finger, and ran it from side to side in front of her face. Callista followed it, and Charlotte made a sigh of relief. “Well,” Charlotte said, “it looks like you’re going to be all right.” Callista moved her head, taking a look at her surroundings. She was still in the cartography room.
Michael was in the seat next to her. His eyes were shut. The trickle of blood down his forehead was now dried. Carl had begun to unfasten the harness from Michael while Charlotte was unfastening Callista. Callista put one hand on Charlotte’s arm.
“I’m all right,” Callista said. "Michael might have a concussion.” Charlotte nodded her head slightly.
“So do you,” she said as she helped Callista unlatch her harness. Charlotte helped her stand.
“You worried me when I came in here,” Charlotte said. "I saw both of you out like that with blood on your heads. We need to get you to the medical bay to get that taken care of.” Callista realized she was talking about the wound on her head. She was curious how bad it looked, but decided not to try to touch it. She looked at the cartographer in the middle of the room. It was down, deactivated.
“What happened? How did we not crash?” Callista asked. Carl chuckled a little.
“It was our Vanguard,” Carl said. "I knew we had a good reason to keep him around. I’ve never seen anyone land a ship like that.”
“So,” Callista said, “we crashed?”
“Well,” Charlotte said, “we crashed in the sense that the White Dirge will never leave this atmosphere again.”
“Actually,” Carl said, “even if we’d landed undamaged in the atmosphere, we would never be able to get her to space again. Ships this large aren’t designed to break an atmosphere. It was constructed in space. What we would have done was send everyone down in shuttles.”
“Are any of the shuttles actually all right?” Charlotte asked.
“I’m not sure,” Carl said as he finished unstrapping Michael, “we’ll check in a little while.” He then pulled Michael over his shoulder, and began carrying him to the medical bay. Charlotte put her hand on Callista’s shoulder, beckoning her to follow them. They walked to the bay in silence. The intercom activated in a crackle.
“Charlotte,” Isaac called from the intercom, “how’re the twins?”
“They’ll survive,” she said as she walked. "Just have a few bumps and bruises. Michael is still out, but the initial scan we did on him shows a concussion. We’ll get him treated and he’ll be good as new.”
“Good,” Isaac said. “I’ve just finished checking on all the stasis chambers and running diagnostics. We didn’t lose a single soul in the landing. I heard that Epsilon class cruisers were tough, but now I’m really impressed with them. Engines are completely shot, though. We lost another engine in the crash, probably due to the blast from the first one. Fortunately, the ship vented most of the fire into space.
“The first engine just had a failure, some kind of glitch that malfunctioned. We could have made it if we hadn’t lost the second one. Just two engines left couldn’t pull us out of the planet’s orbit. The fusion cell from the second engine was saved, so we have three working cells. I wonder how much progress the colony has made before our arrival. The sensors hadn’t finished scanning the planet when we’d started our descent.”
“I don’t know,” Charlotte said, “but we should start hailing them through all frequencies.”
“I’ve already been trying,” Isaac said. The others had reached the medical bay, and Carl was laying Michael on one of the beds.
“All right,” Carl said, “let’s get you two fixed up.”
Callista sat in a chair while her brother was placed on a bed. Carl tended to him while Charlotte took care of Callista. Charlotte pulled two small canisters from a box, handing one to Carl. The small glossy can had a spout on one end, which Charlotte placed over the open wound on Callista’s head. She pressed down on the spout, causing a pink foam to be released from the pressure canister. In a short time the wound was covered and filled with the foam, which acted as an antibiotic, also sealing the wound and minimizing scarring. Carl was doing some other treatment to Michael, but finished with the foam as well.
Michael started to stir as Carl was cleaning the dried blood off his forehead with a damp cloth. He sat up quickly, startled.
“We’re crashing,” Michael said. Carl chuckled for a moment.
“Well, you’re about twenty minutes too late,” Carl said.
“What happened?”
“Isaac was able to land the ship,” Callista said. "We didn’t lose anyone.” Michael looked at her for a moment, and nodded his head. He gave a blank look, and Callista couldn’t figure out what he was thinking. He was blocking himself off from her with his mind’s eye.
They stayed there for a few more minutes, and finally Michael stood up. Charlotte decided they should all go to the bridge, and see if they could make contact with the colony.
As they left the medical bay and headed for the bridge, none of them said a word. They didn’t even hear from Isaac. Callista could see him on one of the lower decks with her mind’s eye, working on one of the ship’s data screens.
When they reached the bridge, Charlotte sat at one of the screens and activated it. It chirped on, with a flash of light.
While she was typing, Callista looked through the window outside. It was too dark for her to see anything, although it looked like she could make out trees in the distance, and maybe even a horizon.
“I’m initiating a scan,” Charlotte said. “It shouldn’t take but a minute or so, and we should be able to pinpoint the colony’s location from it.” The screen chirped for a moment, and then static streaked across it. There were several negative beeps. Charlotte gave a disappointed sigh.
“What’s wrong?” Callista said.
“It must have been the crash,” Charlotte said. “The system is too damaged.” She stared at it for a moment, contemplating their next move.
94
Callista sat with Charlotte in the cartography room. There were wires strung about, and several panels on the walls and ceiling that were open. Charlotte had been hard at work repairing some of the systems while Isaac and his team were away.
Fortunately they’d discovered that only one of the dozen shuttles was beyond repair. Isaac had then awakened a group of people from the stasis chambers. A small contingent of the military, and some other scientists and figureheads whom Callista had assumed were the decision makers. They were using a shuttle’s scanners while flying over the planet’s surface.
Their communication over the radio was being broadcast into the room over the intercom, and Callista sat and listened while Charlotte worked on a data screen that was wired into some cables she’d pulled out of the wall. She’d explained that she was doing all the work in there because the cartography room was the central hub of all the systems for the ship, so they could all be accessed from there with the use of data screens.
“So far all we can see is just plant life and mountains,” Isaac said over the intercom. “Charlotte, have you had any luck contacting anyone by radio?” She sat the screen down for a moment.
“No. I’ve been trying to route more power into that system since it was damaged, but I’m sending a signal over a five thousan
d mile radius and I haven’t heard an answer yet.” She stared at the data screen for a moment, and then her eyes got a little excited. “Wait, I think I might see something.” She tapped the screen for a few moments.
“Well,” Isaac said, “what is it?”
“It's some sort of radio signal,” Charlotte said, “with a very short wavelength. It’s about three hundred miles due east of us. I’m sending you the coordinates now.” She tapped the screen a few more times, and a surprised look came over her face. She sent the data to the shuttle.
“Got it,” Isaac said. "We're heading there now. Is there anything else?”
“I think so,” Charlotte said. "I did some calculations based on the location of the signal, and our crash trajectory. If you hadn’t altered our flight path, rerouting the piloting system and landing us here, we would have crashed right on top of the signal.”
“How close to that signal would we have crashed?” Isaac asked.
“Within a meter.” Callista looked at Charlotte, surprised.
“That’s quite a coincidence,” Callista said, “are you sure about that?”
“Yes.”
Callista sat for a moment, and stood up to stretch her legs.
“I’m going to see what Michael has done with the damage shuttle,” she said. Michael had said he would look at the unusable shuttle and try to repair it or scrap it for parts. She could see him on the docks of the White Dirge with her mind’s eye; he was hiding his emotions from her, but not his presence.
She took the lift to the docks, which were on the bottom levels of the large ship. The lift had been damaged, but Michael had been able to repair it earlier. He’d been a good help with all the mechanical and electronic systems. Carl had even said he had a “knack” for them, whatever that meant.
The lift stopped on the deck above the docks. It was too damaged to go any lower, so she would have to use the old-fashioned method, opening up a hatch and climbing down a ladder. She stepped onto the well-lit floor, moved around the machinery and electronics systems, and finally found the hatch that led to the docks below. It had already been propped open.
She climbed down, not realizing how far it was down. It was a good twenty yards to the floor. When she finally reached the floor, she let go and looked around, having never actually been to the docks.
It was a mess, mostly due to the crash. There were places where hydraulic machines from the floors above had crashed through, and were stabbing through the ceiling into the floors of the dock. Everywhere she looked, she could see wires and cables, hanging from most areas and strewn across the flat black metal floor. She walked through the mess, stepping around several small vehicles that were damaged beyond repair. She guessed they were cars that were powered by cells. There were only a few strewn across the floor as wreckage, fallen from one of the storage decks above.
Michael was on the far side of the dock, inside the damaged shuttle. Callista moved carefully over to him, avoiding the damaged machinery. When she finally reached him, she called to him with her mind’s eye.
“Michael, how are you doing?”
“I’m fine,” he said back to her telepathically. “I’ve noticed it’s taking you less concentration now to talk this way.” She knelt through the small opening into the shuttle, and crawled over to where he was. He was on his back, underneath the shuttle’s small fusion reactor. She could only see the bottom half of his body; the rest was under the machine.
“It wasn’t difficult once I heard you do it.” He crawled out from the machinery, and sat up to look at her.
“It’s just the beginning,” he said, “our mind’s eye, speaking telepathically; it barely scrapes the surface of what we’re capable of.”
“What do you mean?”
“We can alter our physical strength, stamina, and our endurance.” He stared at her for a moment, pausing. “There’s more, though: watch this.” He tossed the small tool in his hand toward the floor. It slid to a stop against the wall of the interior of the shuttle. He held his hand towards it, and shut his eyes. Callista was amazed by what she saw.
The tool began to float in the air, as if carried by some unseen hand. It then drifted in the air towards him. He finally reached out and grabbed it when it was close enough. He opened his eyes again, and looked at her.
“The key is in our mind’s eye,” he said, “it’s the doorway to all our other abilities. You need to learn them too, to be able to protect yourself. Submerge yourself in it, and it will empower you in a way you can’t imagine. We can’t trust any of the humans, especially when they all find out about where we came from.” Callista shook her head.
“No one knows anything other than that we were found in space,” she said, “and I think Isaac isn’t going to tell anyone anything more. No one else knows, and Charlotte and Carl follow their Vanguard’s lead. I’ve gotten the impression from them that they’re going to protect us.” Michael looked sullen.
“You still don’t understand, Callie,” he said, “no one is safe. Ever.” He took the tool, and crawled back under the small reactor. There was a loud clang, and she heard him strain. There was another sound of creaking metal. “Finally,” he said. He crawled back out from underneath the reactor.
He was holding a large metal box, which had a spider-web of cracks covering it. There was light coming from the cracks.
“Is that the reactor?” Callista asked.
“What’s left of it. It needs new casing, but as long as we don’t let it destabilize we can still use it.” He held the case under his arm and motioned for her to crawl out of the broken ship. She did, and he followed. They stood up, and stretched for a moment. He set the reactor core on a crate.
“Well,” she said, “what are we going to do with it?”
“I’m not sure yet,” he said. "Repairing it shouldn’t be a problem. I’m sure with the establishment of this new colony we’ll find some use for a spare reactor core.” He lifted it back up, holding it under his arm again. She seemed a little surprised at his attitude. His behavior. She shrugged it off, though. I guess he’s back to normal, she thought as she smiled.
95
Callista stood in front of one of the many makeshift buildings that had been built from storage materials in the ship. It was going to be a small general store equipped with supplies that had been stored in the White Dirge during their trip. The owner was an older man with glasses who seemed friendly, walking around and checking the inventory with a data screen in one hand.
It had almost been three weeks, and she was amazed at how quickly people were turning the gigantic underground caverns into a community. There were lights attached to the ceilings everywhere, already installed when they arrived. The colony had left quite a bit of the installation left for them ready to use.
The source of the radio signal had turned out to be underground, in the remnants of what had been an underground colony for the terraformers. It was a small emergency signal, but they found no data or information as to what had happened to all the colonists.
The terraforming project on the planet had been completed, and construction of a larger city above the ground had been quickly found, though it wasn't yet complete.
Callista had read all about the techniques of terraforming, and Cirrus was one of the early worlds to be altered. The colonists would locate a large underground cavern or cavity, or create one with their engineers. They would then live there until the terraforming was complete. It wouldn’t be safe to be on the surface until the process was complete. Once the planet was livable, they would begin construction and developments on the surface. They were also supposed to spread the plant life.
The surface had lots of plant life, but no humans could be found. There were birds in the trees, and fish in all the bodies of water. Somehow all the colonists had just disappeared.
There were other discoveries made, however. A young geologist
found a mineral that didn’t exist anywhere else in the known galaxy. It resembled metal, but was highly reactive to almost anything. The geologist had made a big deal about it, saying this would not only revolutionize technology, but the way they viewed the chemical compositions that make up life itself. It seemed like very bold claims, and she was skeptical. The only thing that really piqued her interest regarding the metal is that it seemed reactive to her mind’s eye. She wanted to look at it when she had a chance, maybe study it herself. She had been busy working and hadn't yet had the chance.
No diseases were detected, and no other life indicating a threat, so they’d begun colonizing. Some people were able to pay enough money to have their possessions or stores packed up on the Dirge, but most had just a small amount of supplies. There were large stores of supplies meant for everyone, however, and everyone was given a certain amount of credits with which to begin. They would be able to use those to reestablish their lives.
Callista had been right about Isaac; he hadn’t allowed anyone to know about where she and Michael had come from. When someone asked, he had just told them that they were survivors of a crashed shuttle, and he’d found them in the wrecked shuttle’s stasis chamber. He’d given her and Michael credits just like everyone else, although they had been staying with him and Charlotte. He’d also revealed publicly that he and Charlotte were married, and that they were expecting a son. They had a small ceremony to celebrate it, which Callista had enjoyed.
Most of the people who had leadership roles in this new colony resided in the fortress in the larger cavern which was built into one of the wall. The shuttle actually brought the stasis chambers to a place outside the city, where they were brought down through service elevators. People were awakened in the city itself, in as controlled of an environment as possible. The fact that most of the machinery and equipment survived the crash helped out the colonists a great deal.
City of Twilight Part III: The New Dawn (The Vanguard Chronicles Book 3) Page 4