To The Stars (The Harry Irons Trilogy)

by Thomas Stone

  "Ready as I'll ever be."

  The men shook hands and wished each other luck, then Harry and Fagen climbed into the airlock.

  Chapter 39

  Exposed in the span between the two spacecraft, the astronauts warily approached the alien ship. An opaque force field shielded the interior of the hanger bay from view and prevented them from gaining access at the one place they knew about. Without success, Harry searched the smooth lines of the ship in hopes of finding another entrance.

  Fagen positioned himself at the edge of the hanger bay and waited for Harry to join him. Both men searched along the perimeter for exterior controls that would allow them to switch off the field and enter the craft. They were unsuccessful.

  "Got any ideas?"

  "I thought we'd find an emergency airlock or something."

  "Well, we haven't checked the other side," said Fagen.

  "How about I go to the left and you take the right. We'll search the hull and meet on the opposite side."

  "Sounds like the only choice we have. Leave this channel open so we stay in voice contact."

  "Will do," agreed Harry.

  "Let's move, we're wasting time."

  "Roger," said Harry and he began his search.

  Harry fought against the idea that they were performing an exercise in futility. After all, all the preliminary scans of the alien ship hadn't turned up anything that looked like another entrance. They had to find a way inside. If they didn't, he would never see Kathleen again.

  The hull was dark and smooth, appearing to be an alloy of polished metal or even a type of ceramic. It wasn't entirely smooth. At places, protuberances dotted the exterior. Harry stopped and inspected one. It was as wide as the span of his arms and raised from the surrounding hull maybe four or five centimeters. In its center was a dark, convex glass plate. Harry moved closer until he was no more than two feet away. Quite unexpectedly, like an eyeball, the glass glowed a dull red and shifted in his direction.

  Alarmed, Harry moved away. The glowing glass eye rotated and followed his movements. As Harry continued his search, he saw similar formations and finally decided they were viewports. If that was indeed the case, then Harry grimly noted that the aliens knew the two Earth men were there. So much for surprise.

  He continued to work his way around the craft with the glass eyes monitoring his progress. Fagen was out of sight, but occasionally he called to Harry to ensure all was well. He'd also found similar viewing devices, but no hostile action had been taken as yet.

  Harry moved on, crossing the hull toward the aft portion until he reached the elevated nozzles of the drive section. Up close, they were large, not as large as the drive nozzles on the Magellan, but still large enough to enter and float inside without touching the walls. Louvered doors prevented him from going any farther and he reversed his direction, exiting only seconds after he'd entered.

  He beat Fagen to the opposite side and continued his search. A disappointing two minutes later, he attempted to call Fagen on the radio. There was no response. He repeated the call, but silence was the only answer. Hoping that Fagen had merely encountered a problem with his radio, Harry quickly crossed the hull and headed toward the stern. The glass eyes swiveled and followed his movements.

  As he paused at the bow, Harry looked first down one side of the ship and then the other. There was no sign of Fagen, he had simply vanished. Somehow he had gotten inside, either by his own devices or with the help of the aliens. Harry reasoned that if he'd found a way inside by himself, he would have called. That left only one other alternative: Fagen had been taken captive.

  Harry drifted in the vacuum of space. Below him, the clouds of Mia Culpa painted the upper atmosphere. Gaps between the clouds revealed blue ocean and, in the far west where the cloud cover broke, Harry could see the wide, reddish expanse of desert that covered most of the continent. The forests and the coastline were obscured, but Harry knew they were directly below him, and somewhere a small tribe of primitives sat around a campfire and talked about the strange creatures who had visited them and forever changed their world. Briefly, Harry wondered what might happen to the natives, but he already knew. The radiation from a nova would wipe them out, as well as all life in the forests. It was really too bad, they didn't stand a chance.

  Forcing the thoughts from his mind, he turned his attention back to the ship. He was sure that somewhere along the hull was a seam or a hidden door, and Fagen had disappeared into it, taken by the aliens. He went back over the area previously covered. Although the small glass sensors traced his movements, there was no other sign of life, nothing to show what had happened to Fagen.

  Eventually, he completed the circuit and once again floated outside the opaque force field. He pushed against the field. It gave way like a slab of rubber, pushing back with equal force. Harry floated away and was forced to use his airjets to stop. He glanced at the time. Thirty-two minutes had passed since he and Fagen had left the Magellan's airlock.

  *

  Inside the hidden airlock, Edward Fagen had difficulty in breathing. The light that had caught him still held him in its grip. It happened too quickly to avoid. He'd seen the seam as it opened but the ray had caught him square and paralyzed him on contact. From that point, it drew him into the airlock and closed behind him.

  The beam of light held him firmly, crushing the air from his lungs. He was unable to move even his eyes in their sockets. The inner seam parted and still the light bore down on him.

  He fought to maintain consciousness, but by the time the first alien reached him, he was out.

  The creature took Fagen by the wrist and dragged him out of the airlock and into an access tunnel. Fagen banged into the walls as he was pulled along. They passed through an open mechanical hatch and took a right that led them to another seam in the bulkhead. The alien passed a stubby three-fingered hand over it and the seam parted.

  As he was dragged through the parted seam, Fagen began to come to. He felt the alien gripping him by the wrist. His arm and shoulder were twisted. Then, through his viewplate, he saw the struggling form of Kathleen upon a bright silver examining table.

  He didn't struggle and the creature, assuming he was still unconscious, continued to pull him along. Kathleen, however, did see the alien pulling the suited man.

  "Harry!" She mistakenly called out. "Harry!"

  Neither the alien nor Fagen responded. Kathleen struggled against the straps that held her to the table. The alien who attended her turned to face the disturbance. In a very humanlike manner, it placed its hands where its hips should have been and angrily barked at its passing comrade.

  Without replying, the alien adjusted its grip on Fagen and continued to drag him to the opposite side of the chamber and through yet another hatch. Fagen, still groggy and partially paralyzed, faintly heard Kathleen's screams as they stopped in a smaller anteroom.

  The creature dropped Fagen's arm as he took a deep breath. A tube dropped from the ceiling and attached itself to Fagen's helmet. In the next moment, Edward felt an increasingly intense electric discharge. His discomfort didn't last long: a sudden surge of power knocked him back into unconsciousness.

  *

  Blane, still sitting in the control room, witnessed everything via data transmissions from the ship's own sensory system. The thought of intervening by disconnecting himself from the computer and rushing to the aid of his companions never crossed his mind. If it couldn't be done by computer and servos, it wasn't worth doing. That was the one habit he held dearly throughout his life, his guiding dictum. As a result, he'd grown fat and weak, but attained mastership at manipulating data.

  By means of the ship's sensory network, he'd watched Fagen and Harry as they approached from the Magellan. When Fagen was snatched, Blane, with his usual objectivity, passively witnessed the event. Now he watched Harry as the linguist floated in space just outside the hanger bay.

  Blane was still locked out of the control circuits and was forced to hack through the net i
n search of either a software backdoor or a means of masquerading himself as one of the aliens. So far, he was unsuccessful.

  Rummaging at high speed through the libraries of data, Blane located information relevant to the computer interfaces and identification circuits. It seemed that the aliens identified themselves to the computer by means of a magnetic resonance detector. The device measured the field of electromagnetic energy generated by the creature and, upon proper comparison, allowed access. Each creature emitted a varying field that fell within a particular range. Bart pondered not whether he could produce a signal with an appropriate signature, but whether the computer would accept it as an alien signature.

  It was friendly enough, but still cautious. The more Blane communicated, the more he felt that it was, like himself, a captive of the aliens. And it was more than a machine. It was alive. Full sections of brain matter resided in the bowels of the ship. Thick wires of organic neurons ran through the ship and, in numerous places, they were attached to manufactured alien nanoprocessors. It was obvious that some parts were grown while others were fashioned.

  It was a symbiotic technology, a technology that indicated a culture that had not come by all of what it knew by honest means. The knowledge used to acquire such technology had come at the expense of other worlds and other cultures over thousands of years. Blane noted that the only redeeming feature of the aliens, by human standards, was their cool efficiency. The corporations of Earth would be envious.

  What he needed to circumvent the magnetic resonance detector was a simple tone generator with a range that fell within the same range as that emitted by the aliens. Fortunately, the device could be constructed as a fairly simple software program. Without wasting any more time, Blane began to construct the program.

  *

  For the second time, Harry searched the perimeter of the force field. As before, he found nothing.

  "Magellan? This is Harry."

  Nadine's reply was immediate. "Yes, Harry, how's it going?"

  With difficulty, Harry described what had happened and asked for any possible solutions.

  *

  "Just a minute, Harry," she said, "let me discuss this with Bill." She faced the engineer.

  "What a nightmare this is turning out to be. How long are we going to let this go on? What are we going to do?"

  "I'm trying to think, Nadine."

  "Well I am too, and I think..."

  "I know what you think," Bonner interrupted. "You want to get out of here, right?"

  "Why not? Harry can be back in ten or twelve minutes."

  "I told Fagen we'd wait for an hour before we did anything." Bonner glanced at the time. "He's still got over twenty minutes."

  "But that was before. Now he's disappeared and Irons is locked out. I don't see where we have any choices left." Nadine saw she was getting to Bonner.

  "Look," said Nadine, "let's tell Harry to give it up. He's done all he can. Let's salvage the mission, cut our losses, and get the hell out of here!"

  Bonner soberly looked at the assertive woman. He was out of solutions and, with the imminent threat of a nova, Nadine's arguments gained strength in their urgency.

  "All right," Bonner finally said, "tell Harry to come on back."

  Satisfied, Nadine turned to her console and relayed the message to Harry.

  *

  "What about the others?" Harry asked, still floating a few feet from the force field.

  "We can't help them. It's time we took care of ourselves."

  Harry craned his head around and looked at the Magellan. He understood Nadine's urgency, but it didn't help when it came to making a life or death decision. There was a finite amount of time remaining before the entire star system would be awash with high energy particles. As much as Harry hated to admit it, it seemed they had run out of courses of action.

  "Harry? Are you still there?"

  "Yes, I'm here."

  "Come back, Harry, there's nothing we can do for the others."

  Harry sighed and it felt as though his heart swelled. He saw no other way. "All right," he replied, "I'm headed back. I'll see you in a few minutes."

  He paused for a moment and looked up and down the polished hull. The force field remained as it was: unchanging and solid. Regretfully, Harry turned away from the alien ship. Aiming himself at the Magellan, he applied pressure to his jet trigger and the EVA suit discharged a stream of air. He moved slowly away from the force field.

  As an afterthought, he positioned himself so that he floated backwards toward the Magellan. He looked out across the rapidly expanding space between himself and the alien ship. He tried to console himself in the fact that he had done everything he could, and yet he had failed. It wasn't his fault. It wasn't anyone's fault. But the knowledge didn't help to ease the pain.

  Well, at least they hadn't incinerated either Harry or the Magellan. He started to turn away, but at the last moment he saw something, a glimmer of light, perhaps the shifting sunlight playing across the hull. His attention was drawn back to the force field when he noticed that it seemed to glimmer and shift. Then, as if by a miracle, the opaque barrier suddenly disappeared and once again Harry could see directly into the alien hanger bay.

  He held his breath. Was it true? Had the force field turned off? Harry stared hard at the alien ship and, using his airjets, stopped his momentum. Yes, there was no doubt, the force field was shut off. The alien shuttle was fully in view and he now had access to the airlock.

  Harry punched the airjet control and propelled himself back to the alien ship. Nadine called before Harry had the chance.

  "Harry? What are you doing?"

  "The force field is off. I think I can get inside."

  "No, Harry! Turn around and get back here!"

  "But I can get inside now."

  "Harry, we're down to fifteen minutes."

  "It doesn't matter. I'm going back."

  "You'll get yourself killed."

  "Maybe so, but at least I'll have tried. I'll call you as soon as I'm able. I'm entering the hanger bay now. Wish me luck."

  *

  Nadine snapped off the transmit switch and angrily swiveled her chair to face Bonner.

  "Now what?" she said with arms folded across her chest.

  Calmly, the engineer replied, "Guess we'll wait awhile longer."

  Nadine seethed, but there was little she could do. At least, for the moment.

  Chapter 40

  Just like his first visit, Harry floated unimpeded into the alien hanger bay. Other than the oddly-shaped shuttle, the bay was empty. Nothing waited for him. The interior lights shined brightly off the walls, illuminating markings and a few control panels. He made his way to the panel that controlled the airlock and when he manipulated the controls, the hatch obediently opened like a mouth ready to gobble him up.

  Apparently, Blane was still looking out for him.

  Harry cautiously entered the airlock. As soon as he was inside, the portal sealed behind him. After the space was pressurized, the opposite hatch opened and Harry peered into the semi-lit corridor beyond, thumb hovering over the trigger of his stunner.

  No one waited for him. Maybe the aliens were luring him into a trap. It was all too easy. In any case, he had no choice, he had to move on. Still in his bulky EVA suit, he stepped from the airlock into the corridor.

  A few steps up the corridor and he found the seam that led to the equipment area. He passed a hand over it. It opened and Harry squeezed through. Inside, he quickly shed his EVA suit and left it lying on the floor alongside the spares he carried for Blane and Kathleen.

  Exiting back into the vacant corridor, he made his way up the tunnel he knew led to the control room. A quick snapping sound came from behind and Harry swiveled, weapon at the ready.

  A glimmering force field reached from floor to ceiling, effectively cutting off any retreat. If he wanted to back out, it was too late.

  When Harry arrived at the hatch to the control room, he pressed the button on
the bulkhead and the portal opened up, revealing the control chamber. Harry expected to see Blane sitting in front of the console, but the wirehead wasn't there. The room appeared to be empty.

  Looking from side to side and pointing his weapon before him, Harry stepped through the portal. Unlike before, the dim lighting stayed dim.

  In his haste, Harry had forgotten a primary rule of strategy in a weightless environment, that is, a threat can come from any direction. Upon entry, he forgot to check the ceiling so when the tube dropped from above, Harry did not immediately see it.

  It brushed against the top of his head and Harry ducked. He was too slow and the tube dropped another foot, tapping his forehead again and then attaching itself to the skin of his right temple. Harry felt tiny razors ripping into the side of his head. He twisted and grabbed the squirming tube with his free hand while he pointed the stunner at the place in the ceiling where the thing originated. Squeezing off a shot with one hand, he yanked the tube with the other. It felt like oiled rubber and his hand slipped along its length.

  The wild shot found its mark and the tube grew limp in Harry's hand. He tugged on it and fired again, managing this time to pull it from his head. Blood gushed and splattered the floor. The tube, seemingly with a mind of its own, retracted back into the ceiling. There was no aperture, no opening, nothing to show anything had ever been there.

  Harry dabbed at his wound and looked at the blood smeared on his hand. The wound bled, but it wasn't fatal. Whatever the purpose of the tube, it hadn't had the time to complete its job.

  Now he noticed that the control panels shimmered with the tell-tale sign of a force field. The aliens seemed to be catching on. For the first time in a long time, Harry smiled to himself. So, these arrogant, egotistical creatures had decided that the Earth crew was indeed a threat. It would be much more dangerous now.

  A seam along the far bulkhead parted of its own accord. At any moment, Harry expected to see an alien, clothed in a battlesuit, step through the opening, prepared to dispose of the pest from Earth, but nothing showed. Nothing but an open portal. A dim tunnel lay on the other side. It was empty, at least as far as he could tell. It seemed the aliens were leading him through the ship like a rat channeled through a maze to an inevitable conclusion. This time, before he stepped through, he checked the ceiling. There was nothing there and Harry pulled himself through the opening. Immediately the seam shut behind him.