“It is under our feet. The door is not in a wall, but in the floor. The passageway opening is under the desk of the Bishop. It is too heavy for us to move, come help!”
The four of them were able to shift the desk several feet away from the location it always sat.
“Sure enough, there is a door.”
“I wonder what we will find?”
“I don’t know, but I believe Randolph should go first.”
He laughed, saying, “Oh sure, send in the least valuable one.”
They all laughed. Kare said, “No, the one who may actually know what is there and if there is danger.”
“I know. Okay, here goes.” He pulled on the embedded handle and slowly the door creaked open. Inside were stairs leading straight down. He took the first step and lights flickered on. “Interesting.” He continued down the stairs. Edric, Kare and Samantha followed.
At the base of the stairs was a large, well-lit room. The light was white bright. There were shelves around the room with books, various testing equipment, and some other objects. At the far end of the room was an even larger power supply than they had seen.
“This has the capacity for a much larger ship than the one we are on. And look, there is a second one that is not active. These other items seem to be what I have read are called computers. This is a treasure trove!”
“Look over here, a door. I wonder what’s behind it?”
“We’ve come this far, may as well open it and find out.”
Edric pulled the handle and opened the door. It led into a brightly lit tunnel. They walked down the tunnel and it came to a stop at another door. He pulled this one and it opened into daylight.
“So, they didn’t use the stairs to transport this in here but used this tunnel and then sealed it. It will make it easier to move this out.”
“Yes. We need to see if we can load these items into the ship. I suspect it will take several trips.”
56.122.15
The new items were a significant find. The Reivers had now established several working labs and had brought people from all the islands to help. The learning curve was exponential.
“Okay, I still want to go north and see if there is an island up there.”
“I agree. Let’s go.”
They boarded and departed, this time with Solon along for the ride. They climbed to twenty thousand feet and sped over Quadlibet at four hundred miles per hour, then turned due north. They saw nothing but water for as far as they could see.
After an hour, Edric said, “Kare, I think we have traveled far enough. This is further away from Quadlibet than any other islands.”
“You are probably right. But I am going to go another few minutes.”
After ten minutes, just as Solon was about to say something, she said, “Island ahead!”
They all looked, and sure enough, there was an island covered white with snow. The ocean around it had ice and appeared white as well. Only Kare’s eyes made the difference in seeing it. She began a slow descent and circled the island. There did not appear to be anyone living here.
“It’s going to be devilishly cold here. Let’s really take a look and see if there is anything of interest before we commit.”
Kare slowed them down to a slow speed and continued to circle the island. “Does anyone see any evidence of a building or structure? Anywhere flat for landing?”
Suddenly Randolph said, “Yes, far right of the field, about a mile inland, just below those initial mountain peaks, see it?”
“Yes.” She turned the ship and they went straight for the flat space he had seen. “I am afraid to land, we don’t know how deep the snow is.”
“Move back, let’s see if we can use the phasers to melt some snow. I can adjust them to their lowest setting, so it won’t damage anything.”
Edric fired the phasers and the snow exploded into vapor. He kept at it, moving back and forth along the flat surface they thought was here. After a while he stopped, and they waited for the steam to clear.
“Wow!”
“Oh my gosh!”
“Now this is insane.”
“Well, let me see if I can land it here. Edric, get out the winter gear.”
Solon did not know they had parka’s and boots. “Well, I see you were prepared for this.”
“Yes, brother. We have talked about coming north for a long time.”
When they were all dressed, they each tied a rope around them, then, as soon as the door opened, Edric stepped out and tied it to a hook on the craft. Then they started walking towards the door they had found once the snow was removed. The wind was howling, and snow was blowing. It was blinding. Ice had formed on the surface after being melted away. They stumbled, slid, and generally had a hard time making progress, but eventually, they reached the door.
Edric tied the end of the rope to a hook by the door, so they would have a safety line to get back to the ship. Solon grabbed the handle and pulled. Nothing.
“Perhaps the ice froze the door!” Edric yelled in the wind.
“Here, let’s try this!” Yelled Randolph. He stepped up and used a small thermal pin light and melted around the door. “Try it now!”
Solon nodded, then pulled the door, and it opened. They all hustled inside, and the door closed behind them. It was pitch black. It was deathly quiet.
“Well, this is good.”
Randolph took a step and the lights immediately came on, a very bright white illumination. They were in an alcove and had another door to go through. As they opened it and walked in, they realized this was not an ordinary room, it was huge.
“Oh my God, we found it!”
“That has to be it!”
“What are you talking about.”
“Solon, that is not a craft for flying in the air like the one we are using. That is a starship.”
They stood in amazement at the beautiful silver finish. It must be two hundred yards long! Kare immediately began walking towards where the hatch should be.
“Where are you going?”
“To find a way inside and see if this starship has power. And then, if it does, we are taking a trip into space!”
She found the hatch and opened it. They followed her inside. It was dark. They went to the bridge of the ship and all was quiet. Nothing they did enabled them to get things turned on. They then went to the power area and found two empty spaces where the power supply they had found should go.
“Okay, we have to go get the two power supplies and bring them here.”
“But only one of them had power.”
“Maybe if we plug them both in, the one will charge the other?”
“I don’t know, but it is worth the chance.”
“Randolph, you and Solon stay here and look around, see what else there is. Edric and I will return as soon as we can with the power supplies.”
Solon agreed. While he was the King, he knew his sister well enough to let her take charge at times and go along.
It took some doing, but they returned four hours later, bringing Helen with them. This time Kare was very slow and careful, landing the craft as close to the doors as she could. They also brought additional rope to secure themselves and the power supplies, so as not to lose them in the wind. Edric also did another pass with the low power phasers, drying the surface instead of just melting the snow and leaving ice.
Once inside, they moved the two power supplies into the ship. Randolph placed the good power supply into position. “Well, here goes nothing.” He plugged the power supply in and, nothing happened.
“I didn’t know you could predict the future.”
They laughed. “Okay, let’s put the other one in and see if that makes a difference.”
They put the other power supply into position and plugged it in, then Randolph pushed the activation switch. The
working power supply began to glow brightly, and the dark power supply began to glow a little. After a while, they both reached a similar brightness, and without them doing anything, the lights of the ship came on and systems began making noise.
“Yes!”
“Woohoo!!”
“Alright, now to see how this thing works.”
“How do we get it out of here?”
“We found an actuator button that opens a huge door a little way beyond the door we entered. It looks like this ship can move outside and then, well, I suppose we will see.”
“If this works, one of you will need to fly the other ship back to the island.”
“I will do that. I can then inform the team of the discovery and begin preparations for the next phase, learning about space.”
“Very well, Randolph. We will return to the island as soon as we can, assuming this works.”
Randolph departed and activated the door. They watched as the entire wall seemed to shift to the right. Soon, the opening was complete.
Kare sat at the controls. “Everyone should strap in. I believe this is the pilot’s seat. If I understand these controls, I only need to push this button to initiate the drive and begin movement, so, here we go.”
Kare pressed the button and they all felt the starship move. Then it began moving through the door and outside.
“I am not doing this!”
As soon as the ship was outside it began to climb, slowly at first, then accelerating quite quickly. They watched through the window and saw the blackness of space, the curvature of the planet, the stars.
“I don’t know where we are going. This thing must have an autopilot control in place.”
After some time, they saw a large ship ahead of them.
“My God, look at the size of that.”
“It must be over a thousand feet long!”
The starship continued approaching the larger ship, then slowed down as a door on the side of the ship opened. The ship continued through the opening, and once inside the outer doors closed, lights illuminated the hangar space, and the ship they were on landed gently.
“We’ve come a long way from attacking castle walls with spears.”
They all laughed at this statement by the King.
“Yes, Sire, you could say that.”
“Please, when it is just us, call me Solon.”
“Okay, Solon. Yes, this is a quickly changing world, and it appears to be continuing. So, what do we do now?”
Kare said, “Helen and I will try and find the bridge of this ship. How about if you two explore and eventually meet us there?”
“Sounds good, let’s go.”
They exited their small starship and discovered there were two other ones just like it in this hangar as well. “This ship must be a mile long.”
“I know, it is huge.”
“Okay, Edric, you go that way, I’ll go this way. You two, see if you can find the bridge. If you cannot find anything in an hour, then let’s meet back here. Then we can see if we can figure out how to leave this place.”
Edric turned and went past the other two ships and came to a wall. There were several doors, and not knowing which one to take, he started with the one on the left. When he opened it, he entered a room filled with small machines. They were odd looking, with various large cables, pipes wrapped in circles; he didn’t know what that was.
He went back to the larger hangar and took the next door. This one led to a corridor, so he began walking. Soon there was another door. He opened it and went through it, and this door closed automatically behind him. Another door was only a few feet away, he went to that and opened it and again, it closed automatically behind him.
He found he was in an area with what appeared to be beds, chairs, a kitchen; he must be in crew quarters. Interesting, he thought.
Kare and Helen exited the door in the center of the hangar and found they were a few feet from another door. They opened it and it closed automatically behind them. This was repeated. Then they were in a long hallway. However, right in front of them was what they thought was another door. Kare pushed one of the buttons and doors opened. They stepped inside and found they were in a small room.
“These buttons are interesting. L3, L2, L1, ENG, H, M, C1, C2, BGE.”
“Didn’t the little sign outside say Hangar?”
“Maybe that means we are on the hangar deck, so H would be hangar. So, let’s try the BGE button. Maybe that is the bridge. If not, well, we keep pushing buttons.”
She pushed the button and they felt a surge in their legs as the room lifted upwards.
“If this is how you climb stairs, I like it.”
The doors opened, and they entered a large room with fabulous views out the windows. They could see all of Pelapatia laid out in front of them. It was a beautiful view. They also saw that there were numerous consoles and displays, and a chair located in the middle of it all elevated to see everything.
“This is the bridge. Let’s see what we can figure out.”
An hour later they made their way back down to the hangar deck. Solon and Edric were waiting there, having just returned from their searches.
“We found the bridge. From what I can tell, and I may be reading this wrong, the ship is in a station-keeping mode, meaning it virtually shuts down when people depart, then reawakens when they return. As soon as we depart, it will go back to sleep.”
Edric asked, “Assuming that is correct, that does mean we can depart?”
Kare smiled, “Yes, dear. We can depart.”
“Okay, how?”
“I believe I know how to turn off the auto-pilot on the ship. I also believe that once we are onboard and start our maneuver, the outer door will open.”
“Well, there is only one way to find out.”
They boarded and Kare took the pilots seat. She pressed several buttons, she was beginning to understand what the acronyms meant, and then pressed the active engine button. She held the controls and lifted them up slightly from their landing cradle. As soon as they lifted the outer doors opened. She maneuvered backwards out the door, and once they were past the doors, they closed.
“Well, I see you are ahead of the rest of us in understanding these systems. Can you get us to Reivers Island?”
Kare smiled, and said, “Oh yes.” She then used the joystick and increased power and the ship began to turn towards the planet. They took their time and looked for other islands, but could not find any, at least, nothing they could see from space. It took a little while, but they found Quadlibet and then maneuvered west to the island. Randolph had everyone clear a large area for the ship, so when they arrived there was a smooth, large place to land.
“Well? How was it?”
“It was, unbelievable.”
“Fabulous!”
“Marvelous!”
Kare laughed, and said, “It was awesome, and here is the big news. This ship launched in autopilot mode and took us up to a mile-long ship in orbit. There are two other ships just like this one, inside the hangar. It is big!”
“When can we go?”
King Solon thought a moment, then said, “Look, there are so many things happening very quickly. We need to understand this technology, but we also need to teach our people about this. Let’s do this. Kare, you are Chief Pilot. Put together a schedule and ferry people up and back. I also need you to teach several others how to pilot these ships. Once we get them trained, I want you to begin to learn how to fly that big ship.”
“Yes, Sire.”
“Edric, you are the Chief Weapons Officer. I need you to fully understand all the weapons we have discovered, how they work, and how we can fight with them, if the need arises, and then begin teaching our knights and soldiers.”
“Yes, Sire.”
“Helen, you are the Chief Co
mmunications Officer. I need you to try and find a way to communicate with all of our people and spread the message that we are changing and shifting our focus. Not everyone has to participate and those who choose not to are welcome to stay here or travel, individual choice.”
“Yes, Sire.”
“Randolph, I name you Chief Science Officer. We need to know everything we can learn. Your job is to take things apart, learn, help us understand.”
“Yes, Sire.”
“We have a lot of work to do. Let’s get to it.”
56.143.10
They worked in shifts to discover and learn everything they could about the technology of their space traveling ancestors. They found libraries of data and studied, read, experimented, and eventually felt they were fairly knowledgeable.
Kare taught twelve people how to pilot the smaller starships. They had three ships and used them to ferry people not only back and forth from the large ship to the surface, but around the surface to get people to Reivers Island to learn all about the new technology and their history.
Edric worked with a team to begin to understand the weapons. They found several spaces where what looked like weapons were stored. One day they took several of these to the surface to experiment.
“We have set targets at fifty, one hundred, and two hundred feet. First, let’s try this small hand-held device.”
Edric raised it up in his hand, pointed towards the first target, and squeezed the trigger. A blast of energy exploded from the device obliterating the target. Everyone was stunned so much power came from such a small device.
“Wow! That is a surprise. I think this dial turns it to different settings. Let me turn it fully the opposite direction.” He fired, but this time it was a very small amount of energy. “Very well, you can adjust the power depending on the need.”
Next was a larger device. It was about three feet long, and it too had a dial setting. They set it for maximum. When the soldier fired the weapon, the energy blasted a hole in the rocks in front of them.
“My God. These weapons are incredible! We will not fire the largest weapon. I am not sure how much damage it would do.”
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