Claire put the black seven on the red eight.
Amelia tapped at the keyboard panel, hesitated, tapped again. She stopped, studied the monitor. She sat back, frowned at the screen.
“Hey, Claire?”
“Yeah?” Claire droned. This time she didn’t bother looking up from the cards on the table.
“You should come look at this.” Amelia didn’t look away from the monitor.
“Why?” Claire placed the red six on the black seven.
“Really. Come look at this.”
Claire set her cards down and stood up, stepped around the table and looked over her sister’s shoulder at the monitor. “What am I looking at?”
“Text file.”
“I see that. What is it?” Claire read for a moment. “Oh…. from Danny?”
“Sent to us a week after we left the transport.” Amelia looked up at her sister. “I was just doing some house cleaning, found this. I wasn’t even in the mail folders, wasn’t in the comm system at all.”
“So rather than a mail packet, he sends us a cryptic text file and dumps it into an obscure folder.”
“It was a folder he could get access to.” Amelia looked back at the screen. “It’s not that cryptic.”
Claire gave a soft hmmph sound, then she read aloud: “Things are looking rather hectic here. Best you postpone your visit.”
Amelia nodded slowly. “I would say that was pretty clear, Claire.”
Claire grumbled to herself, folded her arms and looked sharply at the screen, as if it might reveal something more. It didn’t.
“At least we know that Danny was alive a week after he packed us into this shuttle and sent us out here to… wherever this is.”
“And it might explain why they missed all of our rendezvous points.”
One of the overhead light panels flickered several times and there was a beep-beep-beep alert from the direction of the cockpit.
Something was up…
Claire headed forward without saying another word. Amelia followed after her, settled into the copilot’s seat and watched her sister bring up the nav system.
After another half a minute, Claire still hadn’t said anything.
“Well?” asked Amelia.
“Ship’s eyes finally see something out there. There’s some data coming in.”
“And?”
Claire made a face and shrugged. There wasn’t much. Not yet. A few preliminary calculations on time estimates to the nearest bodies. There was no data yet on the planets or the stars themselves. To the positive, this was the first sign of the edge of the void.
“Still a ways off,” she sighed. “Three weeks, maybe.”
“I can do that,” said Amelia. “Having any target data at all helps.”
So true, thought Claire.
And they would soon start getting more data on the nearer planets. More info would give them more options. They weren’t alone out here in the empty black anymore. They wouldn’t just be heading for the nearest white speck in the night. They would soon be able to pick a planet and go there.
§
Amelia dragged herself into the cockpit, still half-asleep, still dressed in night-clothes. She was holding a mug of hot liquid breakfast with both hands. She settled into the copilot seat and looked groggily across at Claire.
Claire had been awake for more than an hour, was showered and dressed, and had finished her breakfast. Her attention was on one of the monitors. She spoke without looking at Amelia. “You look awful.”
“Good,” said Amelia. “I’d hate to think I felt this bad and it didn’t show.”
“If you didn’t spend half the night on the computer and went to bed at a decent hour—”
“What’s the good news, Claire?” asked Amelia, cutting her off.
Claire tapped several keys on one of her control panels and jerked her head toward one of Amelia’s monitors. Amelia swung around and leaned a few inches in the general direction of the screen her sister had sent data to.
“Hmm. Pretty,” she said.
“That’s the system we’re approaching,” said Claire. “If we stayed on course, that’s where we would be in another eight days.”
“And by that you mean we are not going to be staying on course.”
“There’s nothing there for us.”
It did, however, together with a number of other systems and stars that were now within range, give them enough nav data to calculate where they were in relation to charted space.
Claire shifted to her left, tapped a few more keys, and another system showed on Amelia’s screen. “This is where we’re going, just as soon as I finish adjusting our course.”
Amelia studied her screen. After a few moments, she separated one of her hands from her mug and tapped at her keypad. The diagram zoomed out, showed the target system in relation to the shuttle’s location. Data appeared on a second monitor.
“Twelve days.” Amelia was starting to wake up now.
“Janus Two.”
“I don’t think I’ve heard of it.”
Claire gave a sly grin. “Second planet in the Janus system.”
“Most helpful, Claire.”
“It was originally a remote supply outpost, edge of charted space; established in the earliest days of the expansion. Long-since outgrown its status as an outpost, now a colony of 20,000.”
“So we should be able to replenish supplies.”
“That’s the plan,” said Claire. “I don’t know about cryo-juice, but certainly rations. And maybe we can replace some equipment that’s on its last life.”
Amelia raised a brow. “And news? Maybe find out what happened? I know they’re a heck of a long way out here, but after eighty years, ya’ gotta figure even they should know something.”
Claire turned back to her nav station. “For us, even old news would be news.”
“Yeah.” Amelia frowned and took a drink of her breakfast. “Their lag time must make communications just about useless.”
“And they’re not exactly on regular shipping lanes.”
They must have traveled within shouting distance of the Janus system on their way out of charted space and into the void.
The two fell into a casual back-and-forth as Claire continued prepping for the course change. At this point the conversation was mostly to fill the silence. Amelia didn’t mind silence, preferred it in fact, but Claire hated it.
“All right,” Claire tapped a last key, shifted around and faced her sister. “New course is laid in, Janus Two in twelve days, give or take. Plenty of time for you to take a shower, eh?”
§
The data coming in regarding the system they were approaching became more detailed with each passing day, as well as expanding the data of the sector as a whole. The ship had chart and navigational data in its database, but specific information regarding each of the five planets, assorted moons and other bodies was very limited and outdated.
As they drew nearer the Janus system, Claire and Amelia had expected to start receiving the normal indicators of an inhabited planet. A long-standing population of 20,000 made a lot of noise and displayed a significant footprint. There should be radio, broadcast, and other communications bleeding out into space. And the ship’s sensors should also be receiving the environmental evidence of a large colony. It should be shining like a beacon to the stars.
They weren’t picking up any of that. Claire and Amelia were growing anxious. All was not right on Janus Two.
Two days out, Amelia began attempting to make contact with the colony, sending messages every two hours. There was no response to communications.
One day out, still no indicators, and still no response to communications. They were, however, now close enough that they were able to identify a ship in orbit.
“Larger than a shuttle, smaller than a transport,” said Amelia. She was reading the data coming in on one of the copilot consoles; row after row of scrolling text.
Claire was reading her own
set of data. Her nav system was just able to pick up the object in orbit. They would be maneuvering into orbit themselves in another seven hours. “I’m not reading any activity,” she said. “I think it’s a derelict.”
Nothing from the surface, and an abandoned ship in orbit… not good.
Amelia slid back in her seat, dropped her head back and looked out the forward viewport at the distant planet.
“I don’t think there’s anybody home.”
§
Claire put the shuttle into a high orbit above the planet. There was still no communication from the surface, and there were still none of the expected indicators on the shuttle’s sensors.
Amelia fed the system sensor processes and communications to the computer station in the main compartment and left the cockpit. She felt more comfortable in the main cabin. She filled a water bottle from the dispenser and settled in at the computer.
Claire came down from the cockpit a few minutes later. She sat at the table, arms and elbows on the tabletop, facing her sister, frowning, studying the back of Amelia’s head.
“Could they be playing dead?” she asked. “Maybe they’re hiding from whatever happened.”
“I don’t think so,” said Amelia. “True, there’s no sign that anything bad has happened, other than there’s no sign of life, but… I mean there is absolutely no sign of life. If there was anybody down there, hiding or not, sensors would have picked up something. I’m getting nothing. They’re not there.”
Claire tried to think of some other logical explanation. “Right,” she said at last. “But we still need supplies.”
“I don’t think we should go down there,” said Amelia. “Something bad did happen. They either all left, or they all… you know. Either way, the bad may still be there.”
“Hmm.” Claire stood behind Amelia. She studied the data currently displayed on the monitor. “The derelict,” she said.
“Excuse me?”
“We’ll dock with the derelict. There may be supplies aboard, and we may find out what happened.”
“And if whatever happened on the surface is also on the ship?”
“We’ll suit up. That should protect us.” She placed an open palm on her stomach. “But first… lunch.”
§
Claire’s experience with docking was mostly with the family’s small flyer. But she had qualified as part of her training, and the truth was that the shuttle would do most of the work. So long as Claire didn’t put the operation into full-manual, the ship’s systems wouldn’t let her do anything that would do any serious harm.
Nonetheless, once Claire had guided the shuttle into the docking path with the derelict and they had closed to within a thousand yards, Amelia climbed out of the copilot’s seat and started out of the cockpit.
“I’m going to go prep the suits.”
“You’re a snot,” said Claire. But she managed a grin. “Fine. Go. Big sister will take care of everything.”
“Uh, huh,” and Amelia was through the access and into the main compartment.
Claire continued monitoring the docking procedure. Fortunately the ship they were closing in on had the standard docking hatch, so once within range the shuttle sent and received back the appropriate signal and locked in the approach. A few moments later the shuttle slowed to maneuvering speed.
The shuttle moved in beneath the ship, slowing further to docking speed. There was an adjustment as the shuttle stopped its forward momentum and glided upward. There was a gentle thump and bump; Claire heard and felt the clamping system link the two ships together.
By the time Claire got to the gear room, Amelia was into her suit. Claire slipped out of her coveralls and climbed into her own suit. They both then began putting on their gloves.
“I don’t like this,” said Claire, for the second time. “One of us really should stay in the shuttle.”
“Too bad. If anything happens, I’d just as soon we were together.”
“Fine.” Claire handed Amelia her helmet, grabbed her own and lifted it over her head, slipped it on and locked it into place.
They checked each other’s fittings, checked gauges.
Claire activated her suit’s communications. “You’re good,” she said. “How do you read?”
“Read you A-Okay,” answered Amelia. “You’re good to go.”
They worked their way into the airlock and sealed it. This was a vertical docking, and the round docking hatch was overhead. Claire activated the panel set beside the ladder and checked to verify the connection was still good. She activated the hatch and it opened inward.
The connecting hatch had to be opened manually. Claire climbed onto the second rung of the ladder and took hold of the bar handle. She twisted it a quarter turn left and felt it lock into place. She then turned the latch and pushed the hatch inward.
She and Amelia climbed up into the corresponding airlock and closed the hatch behind them.
§
The ship was ten times the size of their little long-range shuttle, but the individual rooms and compartments they passed as they headed forward weren’t much larger than their own main cabin. Reaching the bridge, Amelia settled into one station as Claire sat at the station beside her.
After half a minute the emergency lighting came on, a number of system panels activated; the bridge glowed soft amber.
“Thank you, Sis,” said Claire as she went to work.
“My pleasure,” Amelia answered absently. She continued tapping at the glowing panels in front of her.
“Restoring environmental systems now,” said Claire. The systems and interfaces were all pretty standard, the ship looked to have been around way back in Claire’s time, and for some time before that.
As Claire continued to wake up the ship, Amelia began searching logs and communications. “There’s not much in crew logs,” she said. “Maybe there’s something in the system logs.”
“Communications?” Claire was still working on the environment systems.
“Last comm was eighteen years ago. Same for system logs. Give me a minute to see what’s in them.”
“Environment approaching normal,” said Claire. She studied a stream of data. “There’s nothing nasty in the air.”
Despite that observation, neither made the move to take off their helmets. Claire kept monitoring the waking environment systems.
Amelia continued to study system logs. “There’s nothing out of the ordinary in the system logs going back thirty days prior to what looks to have been a standard system shutdown.”
“They were in orbit that whole time?”
“It looks that way.” Amelia shrugged. “Then they just turned everything off and left.”
“Boarded a transport?”
Another shrug from Amelia. She looked closely then at communications. There was nothing of content saved, she was only able to see a history log of communications to and from the ship: when, how long and addresses. In the month prior to the ship systems shutdown, there were several dozen outgoing communications directed to a single station on the planet at regularly scheduled intervals, each lasting from one to three minutes.
There were just two incoming communications in all that time; one three days prior to systems shutdown, the other two days prior to systems shutdown. They came from a single source, each lasting under half a minute.
Claire pushed back from the station and stood up.
“Where are you going?” asked Amelia.
“To see if I can find anything on a walk-through. You keep digging. There has to be something.”
“I should go with you.”
“I’ll search the ship, you keep doing what you’re doing.” Claire left the bridge and started back along the central gangway.
The commons was a combination rec room, mess and living area. It looked to have been little used in the days leading up to the ship being abandoned. There were two empty mugs sitting on a table in the far corner of the room; nothing else.
After checkin
g stores, good news there, she continued her search. Crews’ quarters looked neat and tidy. A few odds and ends left in drawers, nothing mounted on the walls. Passenger compartments were just as sparse.
She found her way finally into the short, wide hall containing the set of pod rooms; four compartments each containing twelve cryo tubes. The containers in the first three compartments were empty, as was to be expected. The ship had been powered down, after all.
Walking into the fourth compartment, she came to a lurching stop in the middle of the room. For several moments she wasn’t able to do anything more than stare blankly ahead.
Two of the tubes in the far wall were occupied. The glow of the overhead light panels shone on the clear front panes of the containers and on the bodies within.
They had been dead for a long time; that much was obvious. But she couldn’t understand how that could be. All ship’s systems had been completely shut down, and that wasn’t possible with active cryo tubes. The ship wouldn’t allow it.
Not unless there had been intentional tampering.
Suicide? Go to sleep and never wake up? There were worse ways to go, Claire supposed.
She stepped nearer the occupied cryo containers; a middle-aged man in the upper berth, a woman in the lower. They could have been a couple. Likely were.
What could have driven them to this?
§
Amelia looked up from the console as Claire came back onto the bridge.
“There you are,” she said. She gave a slight nod at the monitor. “From what I can tell, the ship went on auto shutdown. I don’t think there was anyone on board at the time.”
“I see,” said Claire. She walked slowly over to the next station and sat down.
“Pretty standard mothballing procedure,” said Amelia. “I did come across a single personal log entry. Found it on an independent station, not in the main archive. I think someone on board was communicating with family on the planet.”
“Really?” That caught Claire’s attention.
“Which would explain the regular comm status records listed in the history log.”
Sisters in Space: The Complete Series Page 3