Chapter 12 – Holas and Zheen
Holas beamed at them.
Pete smiled, mouth completely dry. “It’s nice to meet you, Holas Lornicaan. I’m Pete Daniels.”
Holas turned, gesturing to his daughter to join them.
“This is my daughter, Zheen.”
Zheen walked over, her knee-high boots clicking on the deck plating.
“Thank you for trusting,” she said simply.
Pete decided that the translator was doing a better job the longer that they talked.
“I don’t suppose you have any portable translators at all? You two are the first, uh, aliens that we’ve ever met. We don’t have anything on our ship that will let us understand each other,” Alexander explained.
Holas nodded. “This makes clear why it took so long for our translator to understand your speech.”
He reached past Alexander and opened a compartment beside his head. Reaching in, Holas took out a small box and placed it on his console. Pete moved to watch as he opened an access panel, took out a lead and connected the box to the console. Holas pressed a few buttons and waited for an answering cheep.
“These will aid in understanding each other,” he said as he opened the cover of the box.
Inside were three rows of four small, flat, diamond-shaped devices. They were olive green with a series of bronze hexagonal buttons set onto the face of it. As Holas took the first one out, he unclipped a smaller button-like device from the back.
“I have uploaded the translation program into these,” Holas explained and attached one to his jacket as he demonstrated how to wear them. “Clip this onto your jacket. It will understand what is being said and will send the translation to the earpiece.”
Pete took one of the devices. The earpiece felt rubbery and soft as he slipped it into his left ear. Now that he was holding the main part of the translators, he could see that it wasn’t a complete diamond shape. The top was flat with an access port built into it that slotted into its storage box. He clipped it onto his left sleeve, just below the circular badge for Space Station Cygnus.
“I think it’s time we got out of here,” Alexander said as the lights began flickering again.
He turned, slapping the panel to open the doors. They screeched reluctantly as they obeyed. Alexander slipped through even before they’d fully parted. Pete followed, glancing back to make sure that their new companions were following. Zheen came next with her father bringing up the rear, the box of translators firmly grasped to his side.
The bright lights of Alexander and Pete’s torches lit the way as they hurried back through the ship. Alexander only slowed when they reached the cross corridor and the end of the dim red lighting.
“The power’s out from here on in,” said Alexander. “It’d be best if we paired up. Pete, you go on ahead with Zheen. Holas and I’ll be right behind you.”
Pete nodded and glanced across at Zheen. Her grey eyes were only slightly below his and they were currently set, determined. She seemed ready for anything. Pete set off slowly, swinging his torch backwards and forwards, searching out any hanging wires or debris that could form some hazard for them. Zheen stuck close to and slightly behind, his right shoulder.
It didn’t take long for the four of them to reach the airlock.
“Looks like most of the ship’s now without power,” Pete reported after having a chance to look at his scanner.
In the dim torchlight, Pete noticed a distressed look pass between Holas and Zheen.
“Pete, you better go first and let Nick know that we’re bringing guests aboard.”
He nodded at Zheen, who was being handed the box of translators from her father, before grabbing hold of the ladder and starting to climb up. He carefully reached the top and eased his way into the airlock. Positioning his arms, he pulled his legs up until the gravity field from the pod pulled them back downwards. Pete kicked his legs, feeling for a rung of the ladder. Finding one, he scampered down and cycled the hatch open.
“Welcome home, bro’,” said Nick.
Pete looked up to see his brother lounging in the engineering chair, his hands behind his head.
“Hey, Nick,” Pete replied. “We’ve got company coming. Better get the second engineering chair out.”
Nick stood up and stepped across to the other engineering board. “So, who’s coming to dinner?” he asked casually as he pressed the button that would release the chair from its foldaway position under the deck plating.
“Would you believe two aliens?” Pete asked.
Nick stared at him, his jaw slack. The hatch to the airlock cycled open again and Nick’s eyes slid to the newcomer. He pushed the hair out of his eyes as he stared at the purple girl in front of him.
“Nick, this is Zheen Lornicaan,” Pete introduced. “Zheen, this is our brother Nick.”
“Uh, hi,” said Nick, raising his hand in greeting.
Zheen nodded. She handed the box of translators to Pete. He took it, opening it as he went across to Nick.
“Here, Ace, put this on. It’s a translator so that you can understand Zheen and her father.”
Nick took the strange device, turning it around in his hands as he studied it. He clipped his onto the sleeve of his maroon flight suit. The small rubber earpiece was just being inserted as a second purple alien emerged from the airlock.
“Holas, this is my brother, Nick. Nick, this is Zheen’s father, Holas Lornicaan,” said Pete.
Holas smiled as he came forward, placing his hands on Nick’s shoulders. Nick’s eyes were like saucers as they slid from the three fingers sitting on his right shoulder up into the grey eyes in front of him.
“We owe you our lives,” Holas said formally.
“Uh, yeah, right,” said Nick uncertainly as he glanced at Pete.
They turned as Alexander emerged from the airlock.
“Time to go, Nick,” Alexander said as he squeezed through the now crowded aft section of the pod.
---
Ace worked his way to the pilot’s seat. He quickly brought the pod’s systems up, ready to break off from Lornicaan’s Gem and then looked around to check on his passengers. Alex was beside him in the co-pilot’s seat; Pete was behind him at the main engineering console; Holas had settled at the secondary engineering board with Zheen standing beside her father, peering out the viewport ahead. He took a deep breath.
“Everyone ready? Extending the arms,” Ace reported working his board. “Disconnecting the electromagnets. Firing thrusters.”
The purple and blue ship gradually decreased in size as Nick took the Work Pod further away.
“What heading, Alex?” Ace asked.
“Just find us someplace safe to drift for now,” Alexander answered.
Nick checked what sensors and navigation he had, looking for a clear area where there was no chance of accidentally bumping into anything. Within minutes, he had brought the pod to a halt. Setting the thrusters to station keeping, Nick swivelled his seat around. Beside him, Alexander did the same.
“What is this place? Why are there so many dead ships out there?” Alexander asked looking at Holas, his hand waving towards the viewport behind him.
“You don’t know?” Holas replied, his eyes going wide.
Alexander shook his head. “No. We think we went through some sort of wormhole and ended up here.”
“Is that why you still have power?” Zheen asked. “No ship that’s entered the Bubble has ever escaped before. It drains energy out of everything.”
Pete frowned. “We didn’t have power when we first arrived. But we thought that was because we’d just done a complete systems shutdown.”
“Then how did you get power again?” Holas asked.
“I hooked up one of the generators we have in the back and did a restart.”
Holas nodded thoughtfully. “Yes, yes, that would do it. The Bubble doesn’t seem to drain inert systems as much as it d
oes active ones when you pass the threshold.”
“But what exactly is this Bubble you keep talking about?” Alexander asked in frustration.
“The Bubble is a . . . void or . . . null space. It travels through normal space, trapping ships inside it. If you know what you’re looking for, then you can detect it and avoid it. If you get caught, though, it drains your power and traps you inside.”
“If you can detect it, then how did you end up getting stuck in here?” Alexander asked.
Holas shared a look with his daughter before answering.
“We’re merchants, traders. We’ve been travelling the space lanes for years, even since before I had Zheen here. It’s a good life, hard sometimes, but there’s always something new and exciting just around the corner.”
“Humph,” Zheen huffed, crossing her arms as she leant against her father’s chair.
Holas looked up and smiled. “Do not let Zheen’s attitude fool you. She’s always loved being out in space. She was born there. But sometimes it’s not so safe. There are always those who prefer preying on others rather than doing an honest days’ work.”
“Pirates?” Nick asked in wonder.
Holas cocked his head, listening to the translation.
“Yes, yes that word seems to fit well. Pirates. Some Brenog pirates caught us off guard. They hit us hard, destroying our cargo pods, taking out our main engines and most of our other systems in their first pass.”
Nick winced, remembering the damage that he’d seen.
“How did you escape?” Nick breathed.
“We’d already marked the Bubble on our sensors, so we took the risk and using what little power we had left, we went in. It was our only chance of survival. I’ve heard enough stories to know that being captured by the Brenog is no chance at all.”
Holas hung his head as he finished. Zheen rested her hand on her father’s shoulder.
“And you say that no ship has ever escaped before?” Alexander asked.
“No, never,” Holas replied.
Star Runner Page 12