by Saxon Andrew
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 nickname 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.”
Twig thought to Tommy where Captain Dodd could hear, “Are you sure you want to discuss this?”
Dodd looked at the Algean and knew that something big was about to happen. Tommy said, “I may not like the Captain, but I admire and trust her professionalism. I have observed her since we’ve been on the ship and I am of the opinion that she can be trusted with the knowledge. If she does not agree to take part, we will go to another ship.” Twig leaned from side to side showing her agreement.
Sprig said, “I do not think you can find a better ship than this one.”
Tommy looked at Captain Dodd and answered, “I agree, but I suspect that what I’m going to ask of you will involve a high degree of danger. This is a decision she will have to make on her own.”
Captain Dodd said, “What decision are you talking about?”
> Tommy stood up and walked to the monitor on the wall and said, “Atlas, have you listened on everything said so far?”
The speaker on the monitor said, “I have but I’m not certain what you’re trying to do’”
Captain Dodd furrowed her brow and Tommy said, “I want you to take part in this discussion and we’ll see where it goes.”
Atlas said, “Please continue.”
Tommy looked Dodd and said, “Captain, Atlas is an Alfont.”
Cassie was stunned. She couldn’t find the words to say anything.
“Atlas was found by my father on Earth’s moon when he was trying to escape the directorate. He is an intelligent star ship and millions of years ago his race transferred their physical structure into the structure of their ship. Every member of the Royal Family as well as the leadership of the Algeans knows Atlas. No one else knows of his existence. Sprig and Twig are scheduled to complete their education with Atlas after their initial learning on this ship.”
The monitor on the wall said, “I’m pleased to make your acquaintance, Captain Dodd.”
Cassandra stammered out, “Thank you, uh, Atlas. It’s nice to meet you, too.”
Tommy said, “There’s more Captain Dodd. Atlas has a million of his fellow Alfonts being held captive by a race in a galaxy a long way from us. They have been captive for more than sixty million years and the captors are as far ahead of Atlas’ technologically as he is from us. Atlas will not even reveal what he knows about them out of fear that they will sense that revelation and attack. It is my chosen path to free his brothers from their captivity during my lifetime. Atlas and I have run into a knowledge barrier that has stopped us from finding the means of making it happen. How am I doing so far, Atlas?”
“I agree with everything so far, Tommy.”
“Good, now for the hard part. I am going to release the military data base and dump it into Twig and Sprig’s storage.” The two adolescents grew two feet immediately showing their surprise. Atlas, you are also going to dump your information center directly into them.”
Atlas said, “Wait a minute! That information contains the very thing I won’t reveal to you. I refuse to do it!”
Captain Dodd could hear fear in the Alfonts’ voice. She was still in a small state of shock over the revelation of a living Alfont; this new revelation was more than she could immediately process.”
“Atlas, you’re not going to do it electronically where the captors can sense it.”
There was a long pause and then Atlas said, “How do propose to do it otherwise.”
“The Algeans are telepathic. You will make the transfer mentally.”
Tommy waited for more than five minutes before Atlas said, “I would feel much safer if we had a means of escaping before I attempt this.”
“Atlas, we’ll go to a galaxy on the opposite end of the universe from the Captors location. We will work on the escape effort before we try but when it comes down to it, we have to risk it. If the transfer is done without interference from the Captors then you should feel safer giving us information mentally. However, we need a technological breakthrough to even start the process of freeing your kin.” Tommy paused and looked at the two adolescents and said, “We have two beings here that are stronger at correlating unrelated information than any computer in existence. We have to give them everything we have.”
Captain Dodd said, “Are you placing the Realm in danger, Duke Gardner?”
Tommy looked at her and said, “Probably, however, we are going to try and minimize the risk by distance. The real danger is that we are going to have to experiment with what our two students come up with. I suspect that like all breakthroughs, something will get broken during the process. You do not have to take part in this Captain. I will find another ship if you do not want to take the risk, however, I feel that we will someday encounter this race of captors and that we, like Atlas’ race, could be exterminated or imprisoned by them. I am not willing to just wait and hope our technology will someday be strong enough to make up the three hundred million year edge they have.”
Cassandra listened to Tommy and felt her excitement grow. She was at heart a warrior and here was a war worth fighting. She looked at the two Algean Adolescents and saw them moving side to side in anticipation of the learning they were about to be given. She said, “Atlas, tell me what you’re thinking now.”
Atlas said, “I’m scared, however, I have been paralyzed too long by my fear. I have to ask myself if this is a risk worth dying to accomplish and I have to say that it is. I am humbled that Tommy is willing to face that fear when I am not. I do think, like our students here, that there is not a better ship than this one for the task at hand.”
Tommy said, “I do not agree; there is another.”
The two Algeans, Captain Dodd, and Atlas all said at the same time, “What!”
Tommy said. “The power of a ship is not the metal of which it is made; it is the crew that directs it. Atlas, that race sensed the Alfont ship that entered their system and they immediately set out to destroy every ship like it in the universe, right?”
“That is exactly what they did.”
They sensed one of your ships and then they could see all the other ships like it. If they somehow sense us, we have to be in a ship that they could not trace back to the Realm. We have to have a ship unlike any other ship in existence.”
Silence ruled the room. Atlas said, “You’re going to resurrect the Kosiev.”
Captain Dodd’s eyes widened and Tommy said, “Yes, I’m going to go see my sister and tell her my plans and ask for the Alexander Kosiev.”
Captain Dodd felt her heart beat faster. She was as excited as freshman finding out she was elected prom queen. Tommy noticed that Captain Dodd’s face had an enormous smile. “She almost looks pretty smiling,” he thought; then he banished the thought from his mind.
Cassandra felt like the destiny she never thought would come, had found her. She stood up and said, “Your quest is one I would be willing to die for and quite honestly, I would be willing to do the same to command the Kosiev. We will however need a larger crew for that ship.”
Tommy smiled and said, “We will be gone for a long time so as not to endanger the Realm. I will have the top graduates from the last three classes join us. Incidentally, one of them is a top notch weapons officer by the name of Linda Kay Johns who will be graduating is two months. I do not usually use my position for personal reasons but if I left for an extended time and 3D was separated from her, well, he deserves having her here with us.”
Cassandra Dodd looked at Tommy Gardner in an entirely new way. Here was royalty with a heart that did not forget his friends. Tommy said, “Sprig, I’m going to tell him that you requested that she join us.”
Sprig’s leaves turned bright green indicating his happiness. “Thank you, Sir. I still have to make up for the nickname.”
Tommy looked around the room and said, “Are we in agreement?” Everyone indicated yes. Tommy said, “You are sworn to secrecy on the information I have just shared with you and it is contingent on me being able to persuade the Queen to agree to our mission. Only she has access to the Kosiev. Twig, Sprig, the military database is loaded into your readers. It is larger than any you have seen so far and I suspect that it is going to take some time to assimilate. Please make that assimilation your next priority.”
They left the room so fast that Captain Dodd and Tommy were surprised at the speed they were capable. Captain Dodd said, “He didn’t move that fast when Wes was chasing him.”
“Ah, the hunger for knowledge, I remember when my people once had that hunger,” Atlas said.
Tommy laughed and said, “Well for those of us still here, this meeting is adjourned,”
Tommy left the Dorg-Ross on Atlas headed to Ross. Tommy thought, “Rose, do you have some time where I can see you?”
“Tommy, there’s always time for you. When will you arrive?”
“In twenty minutes, however, I would like
to stop and see Mom and Dad.”
“I can tell by your mental undertone that this trip is not for pleasure.”
“No, it’s not, Rose. I suspect that we will need some time to discuss what I have in mind.”
“Stop and see our parents first. I’ll set aside some time this evening after we eat. I’m curious why you want the Kosiev.” Tommy was startled. “Oh, Tommy, you know I feel your thoughts like they’re my own. I know it has to do with your quest. I’ll be thinking about it until our meeting.”
“Thanks, Rose. I’ll share everything with you; you know I would never mislead you on anything.”
“I know, Tommy. I’ve missed you.”
“Me, too, Rose.”
“She is incredible,” Atlas said.