Chapter Fifteen – Tran
Ace stretched. He was bored. Sitting and watching readouts was definitely not his idea of fun. He half-considered following the others. Exploring that beautiful ship did sound more interesting, but he knew that eventually, he’d reach Engineering. It wasn’t that big a ship. Only then, he’d be standing around watching readouts and passing tools. That wouldn’t be any better.
Then again, doing something had to be better than letting his mind stay stuck on how totally unreal it was to think that he had now met and talked to two aliens.
Nick looked at the readout at the top left of the screen. They’d only been gone for a little over half an hour. And it’d only been three minutes since the last time that he’d looked at the clock.
He sighed, slumping back in his seat. His head rested on his fist and he stared out the viewport. His eyes wandered across the space in front of him. From here, he could just make out a couple of ships in the distance.
Ace grinned to himself remembering the flying he’d done. In the last few hours, he’d put in more time at the helm of an actual ship than he had for a very long time.
It hadn’t been easy flying half-blind in this mess, but it sure had been fun. He shot up in his seat. There was no reason why he couldn’t do some more exploring. His fingers danced over the console in front of him.
Sure, he couldn’t exactly go off flying with his brothers somewhere in the alien ship above him, but maybe he could do the next best thing. Neither Pete nor Alex had been able to get the sensors to work properly, but they’d been looking at the problem from a purely scientific or engineering point of view.
Nick shook his head and immediately pushed back the hair that had flopped in his eyes.
Maybe I really should get that haircut like’s Mum been bugging me about, he thought ruefully. Then, Nah.
He focussed on his screen and started to build a map. He worked backwards from the Star Runner, plotting the pod’s course through the Bubble. At each point of contact, Ace built in icons for each ship that they’d encountered. When he was happy with that, Nick pulled up Alex and Pete’s sensor scans and started adding in that data as well.
By the time that he was finished, the screen in front of him was about two-thirds full. He sat back, looking over his work. There were now thirty-seven separate icons for ships trapped in the void, not counting the Star Runner or the Pod. Ace looked at the clock. A little over forty minutes had passed.
Oh, I am good, he thought smugly to himself.
Nick tied in the sensors to the map he’d just built and set it to scan the area. The Star Runner blocked nearly ninety degrees behind the pod and the sensors were still acting erratically, but ever so slowly, blank portions of the map began to fill in. Two more ship’s icons suddenly appeared, one of which started to blink.
Ace sat up straighter, frowning. He focussed the sensors on the blip and brought up a sub-screen. The computer had identified an extremely weak distress signal. Audio only. Ace tied it in to the pod’s speakers.
“Zheevlok . . . Black Ligh . . . ship drained . . . can receive . . . respond. This . . . Tran’aak Zheevlok of . . . My ship drain . . . If anyone can . . . this transmiss . . . ease respond.”
The message continued to repeat, but Ace ignored it. His fingers were dancing over his console. He cut the transmission and quickly sent one of his own.
“This is Nick Daniels of Pod Nine responding.”
Nick waited anxiously. No reply came other than the continuous loop that he’d already been receiving. He sat in thought for a few moments before jumping up. Snagging a torch, he headed for the airlock.
It was eerie in the Star Runner. Not even any emergency lights. Nick flashed his torch around and quickly located a darker patch that could only be an open doorway. His feeble light showed him a ladder well. Nick shone his torch upwards and thought that he could make out an open doorway.
Stepping out onto the flight deck made his heart race. Even in only dim torchlight, the helm looked beautiful. He quickly crossed to the horseshoe shape and caressed the console. A mixture of touchpads, toggles and switches. He couldn’t wait to get a chance to try her out. Ace tore his gaze away, sweeping the room with his torch. He easily located the door and made his way through it.
A dim glow came from ahead of him as he stepped from the ramp into the corridor. Unconsciously, his pace quickened as he approached the light. Pete had set four lanterns around the room. Various wires, cables and beams were dangling from the ceiling and walls. Three of the consoles that Nick could see were charred and slightly melted.
“Nick! What are you doing here?” Alex asked.
Nick looked across at where his brother and Holas seemed to be working on a large console to the right of the door.
“I picked up another distress call,” Nick replied.
Pete looked up from where he and Zheen had their heads together against the side of a massive piece of equipment.
“Did you respond to it?”
“Yeah, but there was no answer,” Nick replied.
“We need to help them,” Holas stated.
Alex nodded absently, still frowning at the console in front of him.
“I will go with Nick,” said Holas, picking up his torch. “You will be able to finish this without me.”
Suddenly the emergency lights flickered on. Every second or third console powered to life and a low hum could be heard.
“Yee-hah!” Pete yelled. “Finally got it!”
Nick watched in surprise as Zheen seemed to do a little jig, making strands of her dark blue hair fly around her face.
“Come Nick, let us leave these engineers to their toys now that they are no longer working in the dark,” Holas smiled as he guided Nick through the doors.
The Star Runner felt more alive now to Nick. She was no longer just a shell. She felt . . . ready. His gaze was drawn once more to the helm as they quickly passed through the flight deck. He was just itching to run his hands over it and to feel the ship respond to him.
It didn’t take long for the two of them to reach the pod and close off the airlock. Holas took the co-pilot’s chair beside Nick. Ace carefully disengaged the magnetic locks, let the pod drift down and rotated the arms back into place. He flicked on his engines and banked the pod towards the flashing icon on his screen.
Having the map that he’d cobbled together made him feel much more confident with flying through the eerie blue space. Ten minutes of easy flying brought them to a dark triangular ship. It was easily a dozen times larger than the pod, but only a fraction of the size of the Star Runner. Ace neatly circled the ship. There were two hatches, one on either side.
Not for the first time, Nick wished that pods came equipped with airlocks for the side hatch. He rotated the pod, lining up their upper airlock with the hatch on the starboard side of the strange ship. With all of the practise that he’d had that day, Nick was starting to feel extremely confident with the docking procedure. He even thought that he’d managed it in record time.
“We should take a couple of these with us,” Holas remarked as he picked up two of the universal translators from the box they’d brought from Lornicaan’s Gem.
Nick nodded, trying to swallow the butterflies that’d somehow lodged in his throat. Now that he’d stopped flying, he couldn’t stop thinking about how he was most likely about to meet another lot of aliens. He stepped back, letting Holas lead the way up the ladder of the airlock.
As soon as Holas had disappeared, Nick scurried up the ladder and climbed out onto the dark deck. He stood up, shaking off the feeling that he was now walking on the wall. Holas led the way forward, towards the bridge. They passed oval doors to either side of them.
Before they could reach the door ahead of them, it opened.
Framed in the doorway by the dim light behind him and the torchlight that they held, was one of the strangest sights that Ni
ck had ever seen.
The most prominent features were a pair of pointy ears on top of his head, almost like a cat’s, and what could only be a tail. It seemed to continually swish back and forth behind him. His long, dark coat hid most of his body from view, but he was short, roughly the same height as Nick himself.
“We heard your signal. Do you require assistance?” Holas asked.
The being stood there, head slightly cocked to one side.
“You can understand us because of this,” Holas explained, holding out one of the badges. “Here, take it.”
Carefully, hesitantly, the stranger reached out and plucked it from Holas’ hand.
“Thank you,” he said. “I am Tran’aak Zheevlok.”
“Holas Lornicaan,” said Holas, putting a hand against his chest. “This is Nick Daniels.”
“My ship is damaged and almost without power,” Tran’aak said, sounding almost embarrassed to Nick.
“Our ships were as well,” Holas told him sympathetically. “But we are working on restoring another ship so that we can escape the Bubble. You are welcome to join us.”
Tran’aak cocked his head again. “What of my cargo?”
Holas shook his head. “We will bring the Star Runner back for it if we can, but it is damaged and a ship that none of us has ever piloted before. I cannot make any promises. I, myself, have already lost my cargo.” He paused. “But I think that it is better to have lost our cargo than our lives.”
Nick waited, watching. He couldn’t take his eyes off that amazing tail. It never seemed to stay still for more than a few seconds at a time.
“Very well. Give me a few moments,” Tran’aak said at last.
Nick shared a look with Holas as the strange alien disappeared back behind the door. Within minutes, the door slid open again.
“Let us go,” Tran’aak said, sweeping down the corridor ahead of them.
Once aboard the pod, Nick quickly made his way to the pilot’s chair. His hands danced over the console, bringing the ship to life.
“Please, have a seat, Tran’aak,” said Holas as he made a sweeping gesture towards the seat beside Nick. “It is not a long trip back to the Star Runner.”
Tran’aak’s tail folded neatly to the side as he sat. “Call me Tran.”
Star Runner Page 15