Chapter Twenty-Six – Star Runner’s Crew
The points of light representing stars blurred. Alexander rubbed his eyes slowly and dropped back into the luxurious crimson chair behind him. He scooped up the bowl of rice on the table and absently took a bite.
His work was progressing well, although not nearly as fast as he had first hoped it would. Four or five of the star charts that were still spread across the huge conference table had yet to even be started on.
It’d been nearly a full day after their battle with the Brenog before he was even able to start thinking about compiling the chart. Those hours had been taken up with everyone working almost non-stop in an effort to get Star Runner up and running again. Nick had done an unbelievable job piloting them away from the pull of the black hole. Another few seconds and they would have had no hope at all.
Unfortunately, his last desperate gamble had also blown out what was left of the systems still running on the ship. They’d found themselves dead in space, with both sets of engines off-line and the ship itself in more of a mess than anyone had thought was possible.
The race had been on to restore life support before they could even begin to think about anything else, like lights or gravity.
Alexander still found himself amazed at his brother’s engineering skills. He’d known he was good, but he’d never suspected just how good he was.
Which was obviously why Commander Bradford had taken him under his wing in the first place, he mused.
With Pete directing, and Holas, Zheen, Tran and Sfolan lending their considerable skills as well, Star Runner was put back into something that vaguely resembled working order.
Once again, they were under way for the Dramazan system. Only this time, it was going to take more than fifty hours to cover the same distance that they’d raced along earlier in just fourteen. As soon as the ship was no longer in any immediate danger, Holas had ordered the crew to quarters to get some well deserved rest.
The Captain himself had stayed on the flight deck, piloting the ship back to safety. Tran had volunteered to take second watch so that Holas too could get some sleep.
Alexander had found himself wide awake after just a few hours. With tossing and turning not helping in the slightest, he’d quickly dressed and left his cabin. Taking the precious tube of star charts that Krackach had given him, he’d made his way down to the Work Pod. There, he’d downloaded all of the star charts in its tiny computer, grabbed a ration pack and retreated to the conference lounge.
Countless hours later, his lack of sleep was finally catching up with him again. He’d spent the intervening time merging the charts from the pod with those in Star Runner’s own database.
The charts that Krackach had given him had needed to be converted into electronic form before they too could be added. Now, with only a few to go, Alexander was starting to fret about how useful his charts were going to be in helping them get home.
He thought it was enough, but when he realised just how far it was that they had to go. . .
The door whooshed open and Alexander turned his head to see Pete, Nick and Sfolan walking in.
“Thought we’d find you here,” Pete commented.
“Hi, guys,” said Alexander.
Nick dropped into the seat beside his oldest brother, absently shoving aside some of the charts lying on the table.
“Are you working on compiling the star charts?” Sfolan asked sounding interested. “How’s it coming?”
“Not too bad. I’ve still got a few to go, though,” Alexander told him.
“Would you like some help?” the tall, blue alien asked.
“Sure, thanks,” Alexander replied.
He set down his bowl and gathered up the charts that he still had left. He frowned as he noticed Nick immediately grabbing his bowl and shovelling rice into his mouth.
“How do you know how to do so much, Sfolan? Engineering, science, hacking planetary nets,” Nick asked through a mouth full of food.
Sfolan looked across at him and shrugged. “I’ve been looking after myself for a long time. I guess I’ve just managed to pick up a few things along the way.”
“A jack of all trades, huh,” Pete commented.
Sfolan looked at him blankly.
“Guess that didn’t translate so well,” Pete said wryly. “It’s an old saying from Earth. It means that you can do whatever job you need to.”
Sfolan gave a small bow with his head, acknowledging the analogy.
The door opened again, this time admitting Zheen and Tran.
“Good, you’re all here,” said Zheen as she came in. “Father thinks its time we had a meeting. He’ll be down in a minute.”
Alexander quickly collected the remaining charts, rolled them and stuffed them back into their tube. Zheen and Tran took their seats just as Holas came in.
“Good morning, everyone,” Holas said solemnly as he sat beside his daughter. “I believe that it is time that we settled a few matters. If everyone would please take their seats?”
Alexander lay the black tube on the table as he sat between his brothers. Sfolan moved around the table to sit beside Zheen. Tran, of course, lounged in his customary position at the head of the table.
“Firstly, well done to all of you in getting Star Runner up and running again,” Holas began. “I have already gone through the full extent of the damage with Pete and Zheen. I don’t think that we need to list it all again at the moment.”
From the corner of his eye, Alexander saw Pete give a brief nod.
“We are now less than a day away from Dramazan,” Holas continued. “Time to decide what we will do next, I think.”
At this, Alexander sat up straighter. He made brief eye-contact with his brothers and swallowed nervously. It seemed that they were going to have to make their case for having Star Runner take them home now. He really wished that he had more confidence in how helpful his charts were going to be.
“As Captain, I have already decided that we will spend as little time as possible on Dramazan. It’s only a matter of time until other Brenog hear that the Predator has disappeared and trace her back to us. I want us as far away from there as possible before that happens. We’ll go in, trade for food, water and as many supplies as we can and get out again as quickly as we can. Two days at most.”
Alexander found himself nodding in agreement.
“We’ll find somewhere close by, but out of the way, to make our repairs,” he continued. “Right now, I need to know where everyone stands. For myself and Zheen, we will stay on Star Runner. Without the Gem, there is little choice for us but for me to remain the Captain that you have made me. Zheen, of course, will stay with me.”
Alexander noticed a tightening around Zheen’s mouth and eyes. He suspected that she didn’t like being spoken for like that. Knowing Zheen, he reasoned that if she had been asked, then she would have made the same decision anyway, but that didn’t mean that she wouldn’t have preferred to at least have spoken for herself.
“Nick, Pete, Alexander, what do you intend on doing once we have reached Dramanzan?” Holas asked.
Alexander noticed his brothers looking at him.
“We intend on staying with the Star Runner as well. Without us and Work Pod Nine, she’d still be stuck in the Bubble. We’ve shown you what we can do; engineer, pilot, scientist. Star Runner needs us,” Alexander said slowly, looking into Holas’ eyes. There was more that he could have said, but he could see that he didn’t need to. “But our priority has to be getting home. Our parents are in danger and they don’t even realise it. We have to help them. And the sooner the better.”
Holas nodded, but didn’t reply. Instead, he looked past his daughter to Sfolan. The blue-skinned alien sat forward as he noticed the scrutiny.
“I assume that you wish to return to your family on Dramazan,” Holas said gently.
Sfolan shook his head and took a deep breath.
“No. No, I have no family on Dramazan. My mother left us when I was five. My father was the captain of a trading vessel. A little smaller than this, but a good ship. There was a mutiny and my father was killed. Me, they threw off the ship. That was six years ago. I’ve been on Dramazan ever since.”
Zheen put her hand on his shoulder comfortingly. He shook his longish hair out of his face and looked up.
“I’d like to go with you, if you’ll have me,” Sfolan said softly.
Holas smiled warmly. “Of course we’ll have you. Consider yourself a member of Star Runner’s crew. Welcome aboard.”
A broad smile lit his face and Alexander found that he too was smiling.
“And you, Tran’aak. Where do you stand,” Captain Lornicaan asked.
Tran flicked an ear. “My ship, most of my cargo and all the credit chips I had are lost somewhere in the Bubble. I’ve got a Brenog bounty on my head and we’re heading to the last known planet of the Brenog ship that we just destroyed.” He snorted. “You couldn’t get me off this ship if you tried. Of course, I do reserve the right to leave if something better comes along.”
Alexander stared at him as he sat there nonchalantly picking at his fingernails. That was some audacious little speech. Holas, on the other hand, chuckled. Alexander switched his gaze to the Captain.
“Very good, Tran’aak. Welcome aboard,” he said. “That just brings us to our next course.”
Alexander’s heart began to beat faster.
“Alexander. Pete. Nick. You three have saved our lives and you have saved this ship. More than once, I might add,” Holas said, looking from one to the other. “I think it more than fair to listen to what you propose.”
Slowly, Alexander pushed himself out of his chair and crossed to the large screen on the wall.
“I haven’t yet finished collating all of the charts,” he started, “but I think that I can show you where we are from.”
He manipulated the console as he began to explain just how far from home they were.
“This is a view of the galaxy, what we humans call the Milky Way.” He expanded the map. “This shows the Milky Way Galaxy in relation to some of the other nearby galaxies: Andromeda, the Large Magellanic and the Small Magellanic. I used these to get a basic idea of where we are.” The screen zoomed in to a show a portion of the arms of the galaxy. Several small blue dots appeared.
“These represent nebulae: what humans call the Crab, Horsehead and Cat’s Eye. I was able to recognise them on the charts that Krackach gave me.” The chart zoomed in again and two more dots appeared – one red, the other yellow, both on different arms of the spiral galaxy. “The red dot is the Dramazan system, the yellow is the system of Cygnus X-1 where our parents are.”
Alexander could see everyone peering intently at the screen.
“But that’s a long way further out past the Known Worlds than anyone has ever been before,” Tran gasped. “A wormhole brought you from that far away?”
“From what I know, there’s nothing to say that with the right conditions, wormholes can’t connect places much further away than that,” Alexander pointed out.
“And you are the first humans to make contact with other species?” Holas mused.
Nick nodded. “Sure are.”
“Impossible, utterly impossible,” Tran said flatly. “There’s no way this ship could go so far. It’d be a four or five month trip at maximum speed for a type five FTL drive. And that’s once we passed the Known Worlds. Last I checked, we only had a barely functioning type three drive. We’d never make it. There are not even any other planets out there to trade with or to get supplies from,” Tran said flatly.
“I think we should go!” Zheen said intently, staring around the table defiantly.
“There might be other planets to trade with,” Sfolan put in. “Just because we’ve never heard of any doesn’t mean that they aren’t there.”
Alexander smiled gratefully at his new friends.
“Think of it, Tran, whole new species to trade with,” Holas enticed.
Tran just grunted; arms folded across his chest.
“So, do you think that humans are ready to start trading with the rest of the galaxy?” Holas asked with a twinkle in his eye.
Alexander’s grin matched the ones he saw on his brothers’ faces. It looked like they’d just found their ticket home.
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About the Author
Mark McDonough currently lives in Toowoomba, Australia. When he isn't too busy playing soccer or reading, he likes to escape into other worlds. Oddly enough, he's discovered that the people there are trying to escape through his fingers into our world. He hopes that they don't leave any scars.
Other Books by Mark McDonough
e-Books:
Star Runner Book 2: Little Red Men
Flight of the Myserink – A Star Runner Story
The Phantom of Krashnoa Station – A Star Runner Story
Paperback Books:
Star Runner Book 2: Little Red Men
Flight of the Myserink – A Star Runner Story
The Phantom of Krashnoa Station – A Star Runner Story
Star Runner Page 26