“I know, Frank… But, Cindy and I have no particular point in time, where we could say it started. Or, even, how it came into being. Evolution maybe? All we know is that we have this special ability, and it’s fully developed,” Charlotte told him.
“Well, that can’t be denied… So, what made you enter my mind and search that particular memory of Jenny?”
“That was unintentional. But we came across it and found it amusing. We thought it was worth pursuing to see how far we could make you relive things that you had done in the past,” she told him.
“You must have realized that it was embarrassing to me?”
“Afterwards, yes. We’re sorry about that, but we also needed to find out how strong you are… And, as you know, you were strong enough to kick us out.
But, more importantly, if we hadn't attempted this, we would never have seen the alien ship breaking up in the rift.”
“Okay.”
“Thank you for understanding,” Charlotte quietly replied. “By the way, Frank. We know that you think we’re going to Solvera. But we’re not. Things have changed,” Charlotte added.
Frank was surprised to hear this, and, to realize that there hadn’t even been a hint of disappointment in her voice.
“When we reach Dpav4 we’ll have a better idea of what, if anything, we may have to deal with,” she told him.
“In any event, I think we should all stay close together,” Cindy added.
“OK, so will both of you work with Susanna and me?”
“Of course. Remember Frank, we’ve seen, and felt the same feelings as you have. So, all four of us are as one.”
“So you will work with us, great. Oh, and one last thing…”
“Yes, is the answer.”
“What? Oh, I understand. You’ve looked into my mind. Okay, so how is it possible that the two of you have been in both Susanna’s, and my dreams, since way back before we first went to Delta Pavonis?”
They didn’t reply, for a moment. Just looked at each other.
Charlotte then said, “We can’t answer that at this stage, Frank. Not without permission from Delta’s Chamber.”
“This Chamber. You’ve mentioned it before. What is it?”
“Sorry, Frank. I know you glimpsed it when I was distracted.”
“You could just tell me, Charlotte.”
“Maybe, at the end.”
“End of what?” He exasperatedly asked.
“Just… Just the end,” she enigmatically replied.
“Thank you anyway,” he said while thinking to himself that he didn’t believe all they had told him. But, at least, they’d been pleasant and helpful most of the time. Then he gave up and stood up to leave, finally accepting that he wasn’t going to get an answer at this point.
However, he didn’t like what they were implying.
Once back in his cabin, he received a call from Earth Federation’s vice president, Horatio Stevenson, and the Russian Grand Councilor, Andrei Sergei Volkov. Frank was surprised to hear from them, as most of the time the dignitaries had kept to themselves. However, they had just called to ask for a personal update on the ship’s arrival time at Delta Pavonis.
Now, six hours later, and with just one hour to go. Andromeda was preparing for its impending warp exit at Dpav4, in the Delta Pavonis star system.
As the exit time drew near, Frank started feeling fidgety and began walking back and forth in his control room. Then contacted Mark Trask, his weapons specialist, through his transceiver implant.
“Mark. Are our weapons ready?”
“Why, bother to ask me?” Mark jokingly replied. “Andromeda knows they are.”
“True, but I would like confirmation from you.”
“Alright. Yes.”
After this, Frank sent a request to Ned Parker of Quantum Engineering, asking if there were any problems with warp stability.
“You could have asked Andromeda. She knows everything,” he grumpily replied. Then sighed knowing Frank wanted to hear it from him as well.
“Ok, there aren’t any problems,” he finally told Frank.
“Grumpy aren’t we?”
“Well, don’t ask me something you already know.”
“I just need to hear it from you.”
“I may like you, Frank. But, don’t waste my damn time on things you already know.”
“You’re repeating yourself now, Ned. But, thanks anyway,” he finished, smiling to himself as he broke contact.
He walked around a bit, then decided to call Tim Watson in Astro. Then thought better of it.
Calm down, he ordered himself and sat down for a while.
“Andromeda. Are we ready?” He suddenly asked out loud.
“Yes, Frank,” she replied.
“Did you get anything from the visual info that Charlotte sent you?” He asked.
“Yes, and as you already know, the images of the alien ship as it broke up may be useful.”
“Okay. Privacy, please Andromeda,” he requested and felt her presence leave again.
Just then Susanna came back from the Gym and stood watching him walking around, looking gloomy.
“Stop wandering around, Frank,” she snapped at him. He looked at her, surprised to see her back.
“Sorry, I can’t help thinking about the alien ship breaking up in the rift, and worrying about what may be waiting for us when we exit. Even though I know, I can’t find anything out until then. If it were just me worrying, I’d probably be wrong. But it’s not just me, is it?”
“Of course not. But it doesn’t mean there’ll be an immediate problem.”
“I still worry, Sues.”
“Yes, but you’ve got me to help you, as well as Charlotte and Cindy. What more do you want?”
“Answers,” he replied.
Chapter 14
The Devil’s hand
Two hundred light years from Pavonis.
Verice was relieved that, once again, their jump had gone smoothly. Knowing that when they arrived at the next jump point, they would be just one hundred light years away from this survival pod’s beacon.
-Ω-
2311.
Andromeda exited warp close to planet Dpav4. To the relief of everyone, no contact alarms had sounded.
“Everything is as it should be,” Andromeda reported, as Frank looked at his screen, and saw what appeared to be a busy, albeit peaceful scene outside the ship.
Frank ignored the commercial vessel that was in a low orbit. He was more interested in the Crillon Battleship that was accompanied by a couple of their Battlecruisers.
Then he saw the two Solveron ships. All five of the ships were circling in high orbit. But, for him, the Solveron ships were the icing on the cake.
The Crillon’s battleship, Carga, together with the two Crillon Battlecruisers, had just arrived at Dpav4 on a goodwill visit. And had joined the two Solveron Spheres that were already in high orbit.
While, Victor, an Earth cargo ship, had weaved its way into its allocated orbital parking position, in low orbit. Where it would offload its cargo for onward transit to the planet by shuttle. Before loading a new cargo destined for Earth.
Frank knew that the Argonaut was still at the temporal rift’s original location, three light days from Delta Pavonis. While the Experimental Star Cruiser, Neutron, was en-route to the orbital service platform orbiting Dpav4.
“Andromeda. Contact Hector on the Argonaut,” he ordered and was surprised to hear Hector’s voice even before the live video feed had displayed.
“Hello, Frank. I heard you were heading this way.”
“You sound cheerful, as usual, Hector.”
“Naturally. What can I do for you?”
“I understand that you’re checking out an object that was retrieved close to an unstable Rift. At least, that’s what we're picking up from your general chatter. Can we help you?”
“Yes. You’re right. We do have the metal panel that the Starcruiser Neutron’s Captain reckons was t
hrown out of the Rift.”
“Can you send us a 3D image of it, and anything else that might be useful, and I’ll see if we can place it for you.”
“What do you mean, Place it?”
“Well, find where the panel would have been located on the ship.”
“Oh, okay,” Hector replied, and Argonaut's connection went dead for a few seconds. “Frank. Andromeda should have it, now.”
“Okay. Have you got it, Andromeda?”
“Yes, Frank. I have the Newton’s recording and an image of the object.”
“Good. I’ll call you back later, Hector,” he said and broke the connection.
“Andromeda. When I tell you, send the data to Charlotte and Cindy,” he ordered. Then concentrated his mind on Charlotte.
‘Yes, what do you need, Frank?’
‘I’m going to send you an image of the object that Hector has on the Argonaut. Can you and Cindy try and place its original location on the ship that came out of the Rift?’
‘I assume you mean, the function it performed, and which part of the ship it came from?’
‘Yes. I don’t know if it’s even possible for you to see it, let alone find the rift,’ he told her.
‘We’ve never tried anything remotely like this before… We’ll see what we can do, Frank.’
‘Thanks. Andromeda’s sending the image to you, now. So, if you can, transmit the location back to her.’
‘Okay, we have it, Frank… Give us a moment to see if can find the Rift. If we can, then theoretically we should be able to reconstruct the last moments of that ship.’
Frank felt giddy, all of a sudden. Then realized that the girls must also have needed his vision of what they had experienced earlier, to find the Rift.
And, they must have also required his mental ability to aid in their attempt to reconstruct the alien ship, a millisecond before it was ripped apart.
Frank caught a glimpse of the alien ship, in his mind. The ship appeared to be enormous, but it was only there for a split second as the black looking Rift snaked and flexed violently. First stretching, then compressing the vessel with tremendous force. Causing it to expand outwards, and finally, break apart in a violent flurry of energy. Then the scene ended.
“Andromeda. Did you record that?”
“As well as I could. The girls have done well, Frank. Oh, and you too,” she apologetically added.
“Okay. Wing it to Argonaut,” he ordered.”
“On it, Frank.”
Then he felt Cindy’s voice in his mind. ‘That was mind-blowing, Frank. We think the metal panel came from that bulbous section at the rear of the alien ship.’
‘I agree… Tell me, did I get stronger, or was it just my imagination?’
‘Only you can answer that, Frank… However, the three of us seemed to mate, pretty well. Mentally, that is.’
‘Shame…,’ he answered, but had no idea why he’d said that.… ‘Uh. How was it possible for us to see it?’ He asked.
‘Threads.’
‘I’m not sure I know what you mean, Cindy.’
Charlotte then joined in. ‘Frank, cast your mind back to your first meeting with the Crillons, on Crilla. Remember what they said.
They told you that, when an artificial wormhole collapses, a one centimetre diameter thread, or micro-wormhole, remains open. More importantly, this thread remains open for quite some time, maybe even for years.
The thread retains whatever information was within the wormhole at the time. And, it seems to be possible to access this information, and even use the thread as a communication link.’
‘So, you mean similar to the Solverons hundreds of orange spherical communication links, Charlotte?’
‘Yes. However, a Rift seems to retain information. Like the info we’ve extracted on the alien ship. Perhaps it can keep it indefinitely, or at least until the Rift is squeezed out of existence.’
‘So, that’s why the Star Cruiser Neutron registered a temporal component. Isn’t it?’ He asked.
‘We believe so. However, time itself would have changed considerably along the Rift. Especially, as this one seems to have nearly folded back on itself.’
Frank was amazed at their grasp of these complex issues. ‘When did you two actually become inter-spatial geniuses?’ He asked.
‘When we were at Delta, Frank,’ Charlotte matter of factly replied.
Andromeda suddenly interrupted his conversation, and he felt Charlotte and Cindy’s presence ebb away.
“Hector’s calling,” she told him, as he heard Hector ask if he had a moment.
“Yes, Hector.”
“We’ve just finished analyzing Andromeda’s info. How on earth did you manage to get that image of the ship?”
“Don’t ask me, Hector. But, we believe that it’s as close to the real thing as we’ll ever get.”
“Well, you obviously managed to tap into the Rift’s residual filament… How?”
“Let's just say, it’s experimental at the moment.”
“I still think you and Susanna have something unnatural going on, Frank.”
“Think what you like, Hector… Oh, and, by the way, you’ll be glad to know that we’re not the only ones.”
“If you say so, Frank. Anyway, call me if you come up with any more intuitive thingies,” Hector finished.
Horatio Stevenson, Earth Federation’s vice president, called Frank next.
“Can Andrei and I take a trip down to City Atreen? We’d like to meet councilors Brendereen and Acarea Bernstein before they come aboard? Just an unofficial visit, you understand, to get to know them before we leave for Crilla and Solvera.”
Frank and Susanna had planned to go down to see Bren and Acarea again in their new city, Atreen. But, had reluctantly decided to wait until they came aboard the Andromeda, then visit their city another time.
“Yes, of course. That makes sense. I’ll get a marine pilot to take you down on one of our shuttles.”
“Um, Captain… Don’t you have any real shuttles?”
“I’m sorry, sir. I’m sure you’ll enjoy the ride,” he replied and couldn’t help smiling at the thought of the two dignitaries going down on one of their force craft.
“Oh well, if we must… How long can we stay?”
“Depends on when Bren and Acarea are ready to board, and, if any new developments crop up to cause a delay. Perhaps a couple of days if they’ll have you,” Frank finished, then checked the situation.
“Ok, Horatio. Andrei’s already contacted them, and it is okay with the Pavonisien councilors, for you both to go as soon as you like. So, can you be in the holding bay, in one hour?”
“Absolutely.”
“Make sure you both have everything you need for a couple of days stay,” Frank reminded him.
“Will do. Thanks for your help, Frank.” With that, Horatio broke contact, and Frank called the Marine Captain.
“Thomas, the two dignitaries need a lift to the surface, in one hour. Tie in with Andromeda to get their itinerary,” he ordered, then broke contact, and leant back in his seat thinking about things in general.
It was strange that he hadn’t realized just how much he enjoyed talking directly to people, instead of using his implant, he idly thought to himself. Then Susanna entered the cabin, interrupting his thoughts.
“Well, how did it go?” She asked, sitting down on his sofa, and beckoning him to join her.
“Pretty good…Sues. Both Horatio and Andrei are going down to stay with Bren and Acarea for a couple of days. So, that’s one less thing to worry about.”
“And, Charlotte and Cindy? Did they find what you were looking for?”
“Yes, and more… Why are you asking? I thought you were linked in.”
“Afraid not. It appears that, in this instance, three minds worked better than four.”
“Oh. Sorry, Sues.”
“I’ll live with it. Anyway, Andromeda showed me the recording of the ship in the Rift.”
“What
did you think of the vessel?”
“It looked huge, and I thought the shape was strange, especially with that bulbous rear end, or maybe it was the front end. Anyway, it looked pretty formidable to me.”
“Yes, I agree… I don’t know about you, but I feel tired, now, Sues.”
“Lay back and relax with me for a while,” she suggested, and he smiled at her then lay back close to her. After a while, they both fell asleep.
The sound of contact alarms, permeating the ship, woke them both up with a start.
“What is it, Andromeda?” he called out.
“Our worst nightmare, Frank. An unknown ship has exited a wormhole just nine hundred and thirty million kilometers from Dpav4. And, worst of all, it looks very similar to the one in the Rift.”
Frank could see that Andromeda was right as he looked at his primary screen, then zoomed in to enlarge the scene showing on it. The screen showed a ghostly looking, semi-transparent and almost shimmering image of a ship with a bulbous end.
To him, it appeared quite a bit smaller than the one in the rift had been. But, even so, the semi-transparent ship looked more menacing than any of their ships, or even the Crillon and Solveron ships.
“Geeze,” he exclaimed.
The ship, was bluish-purple in color, with lighter streaks that seemed to drift and shimmer across its hull.
Frank gauged that it must be a lot more than a kilometer in length. He could also see ghostly images of raised elongated sections, at regular intervals along the shimmering hull. This confirmed his suspicion that in addition to having Force-field emitters, the ship must also be heavily armed.
Then he noticed the micro sized, silver looking molecular disruptor domes dotted around its hull.
“Grief,” he exclaimed, they look the same as the Solveron ship’s disruptor emitters.
Frank felt sick. “The devil’s arrived in our midst,” he muttered almost to himself.
“Andromeda, stealth mode. Now,” he ordered.
The Garoden War. (SpaceFed StarShips Series) Book 6. An action-packed follow-on story that sees the Earth's Space Navy in action.: ‘Into the Fire.’ Page 8