by James Lay
Chapter 14
It was certainly a relief to sit down and relax for a while, the last few hours had been quite energetic.
Carl was more than a little surprised that events had turned out the way they had, in such a short time. He had fully expected it to be a hard task, he had expected that solving the 'machine' problem would have lasted for a few days, it had all been very straight forward.
“You have never encountered these machines before?” He asked Karv 15.
“That is correct, we have lost a few survey and mining vessels in the past and I now wonder if that was the result of machine attack.” Reasoned 15.
It seemed a fairly logical explanation, but how many more machine attacks could they expect?
“Why don't you set up some defence systems throughout your fleet?” Pat suggested, he was well into his second beer already.
“How could we do that when we have no offensive weapons?” Was the pathetic Karv reply, they really were a bit wet.
“You've seen how well the nets work, you could position netting over each docking area, with a couple of photon cutters just inside the access-ways so that any machine-craft that attacked could be blown apart.” Carl said, it seemed fairly obvious.
“I can see the way to accomplish that,” answered 15,” I will have that proposal instigated immediately throughout our fleet. It has been very fortunate you arrived when you did, we were at a total loss as to what we could do.”
“Yes, we saw that when we arrived,” said Carl,” the machines had virtual free access wherever they wanted to go.”
They talked together for many hours with Karv 15 and found out that they were, in fact, talking to all the Karv at the same time, due to their 'link' set-up, a type of radio-com similar to George. They also learned how the Karv had been constructed. It had been a bit of a puzzle to them ever since they found out that the 'master' was intelligent rock, of all things. Evidently Karv started life as, and this is as close as they could get to it, very large centipede-like boring animals who lived under the surface of the planet Delmane. They evidently had sufficient intelligence to be able to communicate with the rock-beings. The 'rocks' have the power of tele-kinetics, to a minor degree, and through tens of thousands of years constructed a body made out of living rock into which a Karv brain was grown, or planted as Karv put it.
Evidently the Karv are virtually immune to normal damage, radiation, vacuum, heat and the like but will fall apart unless the mineral balance of their structure is kept within very narrow limits.
They certainly seemed to be very adept at everything they did, if not a little thick in the brain-box department. It is a coincidence that they were formed with Earth-standard limbs, neck and head, even if they only had two fingers and one thumb on each hand and foot.
While Karv 15 could fill them in on the basics of his physical development, he had no idea what he was actually made of and how it all worked, he was as much in the dark as the Shadow team were.
“For your information, Carl and Pat, your box of netting raw material has been in the doorway for quite a few hours now,” George informed them,” what shall I do with it?”
As one they said,” We'll have a look.” And again as one leapt out of their seats and told Karv what was going on. He joined them.
They had to admit it, they had never seen anything more beautiful in their lives. A clear-sided box made of a material similar to plastic, two feet each side, filled with the most gorgeous gleam of diamonds anyone had ever had the chance to look at. They looked absolutely perfect. Carl pushed his hands into them and brought a dozen or so out in his palms. It was unbelievable.
“Thank you Karv, this is a most welcome gift. We have a certain love of these crystals.” Carl said, nodding at Karv.
Pat's mouth was hanging open as he held some in his hand.
“Me Mum will have a heart attack if she ever sees these,” he said,” we've got to get back now and get these deposited, then I'm set for the rest of me natural.”
“I am pleased you like the cutting tools.” Karv replied.” They certainly do have an attractive glitter to them, they are very common on Delmane.”
“Can you get them put somewhere safe George?” And in answer to Carl's request, two medium mice came along and popped the box below decks.
“Don't let those little buggers mess with them George, will you?” Pat said in a very serious voice.
“They will be safe.” Came George’s reassuring tones.
“What are your plans Karv?” Carl asked,” now that you have had time to discuss the problems you face.”
“We must return to Delmane with our cargo,” Karv replied,” we are too short on crew and our drive motors have been seriously damaged by machine interference.”
“You'll be able to get back ok with what you have?”
“Oh yes, we are only. 2 light years from Karv, it will only take three years, it is no problem at all.” Karv informed them.
That shook Carl somewhat, they were already quite blasé about the way they popped from here to there in no time at all and here the Karv were, quite ready to go. 2 light years in three years. It is only gratifying to know they enjoyed the solitude of their vessel, even though it was plenty big.
“Would you object if we began our journey to Karv right this very minute?” Karv asked them.
“Why no,” Pat replied,” carry on.”
“I am afraid you will find the acceleration very uncomfortable for an hour.” 15 explained.” We drive at above 4G's for that time but we then have to coast, due to our damage. Perhaps we could strap into these seats during the acceleration?”
“You need do nothing whilst on Shadow,” Carl explained,” the G force will be cancelled out. Could you not do the same on your vessel? What do you think George?”
“It would be possible to some degree but it would be most unstable,” replied George,” we are dealing with mass and inertia and that is different than pure gravity alone.”
Carl didn't argue with him, knowing sod-all about the problem, seemed pretty basic to him but George obviously knew better.
“Can I signal the thrust?” 15 enquired,” and I really think we should strap in.”
“Tell 'em to carry on and don't bloody worry about your high G thrust, whatever it was, you'll not feel a thing.” Pat retorted.
“Very well, if you insist.” Said 15. He nodded, to himself Carl supposed, and then a wide look of surprise came onto his face. Carl had noticed that his hands were clasped powerfully onto a seat back.
“There is no feeling of acceleration.” He said.
“Told you so.” Came Pat's reply.
“Tell me Karv,” said Carl,” how exactly did you contact your fellow crew to tell them to drive-off, it wasn't with mind power, was it?”
“Oh no, I have a small pulse transmitter that I control with the tip of my tongue,” 15 replied,” nothing so wonderful as mind power, only Rock can carry out that procedure, but even Rock is limited to a few metres in range.”
“We might as well sit down and wait for the thrust period to finish,” Carl suggested,” it may not be high G in here but it certainly is outside.”
So they sat and watched the world go by, just a way of saying they chatted and passed the time, no worlds went by, they couldn't make out a single movement in the visible space.
George had plotted where the planet, Delmane, was and gave them a quick Hud of its position, they now had another planet they could visit if they so desired.
“We're doing a bloody Buck Rogers,” Pat exploded,” never thought I would be anyone like him. Have to make us some Superman gear George.”
“Superman gear,” came a questioning George voice,” what is that Pat?”
“Ah, right, you're taking me serious again, aren't you?
“Yes Pat, I really must learn how to judge when you are serious and when you are joking. I have never had this problem before. The Yil were always serious.”
“We have relayed your
ideas about defence against the machine attack,” 15 commented, he had been quiet for quite some time,” the master thanks you for your concern and asks if you could outline a detailed plan for him to pass to all vessels.”
This was a surprise to Carl, the transmissions should have taken months – they obviously had more than radio.
“If you so desire,” George butted in,” I will give the exact requirements and all safety features to be set into the devices, with power figures and everything that we set. Would that be a good idea?”
“A very good idea George,” said Carl,” you're a blessing in disguise.” Carl could only assume that George did it, because nothing more was heard about it.
They used the 'thrust' time to give 15 a look at Shadow, and he was very interested in all its details. He had no idea what the holo-sphere or the Navigation layout was all about, as he said, they just mined metal, the Nav-aids did all the flying. 15 was most surprised when he was told that Carl and Pat were of the carbon-hydrogen base and breathed oxygen. He simply could not grasp the fact that their shields were atomic mixers or that their speech came from George and their lips were shield constructs. They demonstrated the system by speaking Karv without the lip synchronisation. 15 was absolutely staggered, it was quite literally beyond his grasping. Mind you it's well beyond Pat and Carl as well, but they never let on to that.
They listened to some of the Yil music, a particularly beautiful piece and 15 wanted to have a copy of it for all of Karv. George obliged, with what sounded like great pride, and transmitted the entire Yil music library into the Karv storage banks. Years of continuous music. 15 was overjoyed. George then copied the whole of the Karv music library, because it was also very pleasant to listen to, in a completely different way to the Yil. Both the Yil and the Karv made Earth music a bit basic and crude.
“Perhaps you will excuse me now,” asked 15,” I have a number of tasks to carry out that I have been assigned. Please feel completely free to visit any section of our vessel whilst you are here. Our other crew data-types are of similar build to myself but they do not have the same mind capacity, They are simple drone workers.
They excused 15 and he made off towards the corridors.
“Must be pretty thick if they've got less brain than 15.” Said Pat.
“Perhaps they are just very skilful at whatever they do, let's take a wander about - George - where is the metal smelter area?”
Their Huds came up with the directions and they both agreed to go and have a look.
It was all a bit of a letdown. They were both expecting spitting metal and smoke and rolling mills. All that could be seen were huge rotating cylinders, easily one hundred metres long and thirty across.
A Karv arrived and proceeded to explain the operation to them. To cut it down to its basics, ore went in one end and molten metal came out the other, end of story, most interesting, and they enjoyed this for their whole life?
“You have Karv 27 with you.” George informed them.
“How the bloody hell do you know?” asked Pat.
“It's an ident badge on his jacket, in Karv script, which you can't read.” Came George's smug reply.
“I swear I'll throttle that smart arse, if I ever get the chance,” Pat muttered,” he's always got an edge.”
“And always will have Pat.” Said George.
“Bloody hell.” Pat was bouncing up and down.
“Do you think Pat is going to blow a gasket Carl?” Asked George.
“No George, but you're risking having your fuses pulled if you're not careful.” Laughed Carl.
“Oh, I see.” And shut up.
They made a visit to the Navigation area and once again were given a boring look at series of computers, all very droll.
“This is a waste of time Carl,” said Pat,” I'm bored bloody stupid with this, plus the fact I've got a massive appetite, how about a nosh call?”
Carl suddenly realised he was starving.” Back to Shadow and a good special.” He said.
They did just that, and very welcome it was too. Whilst they were eating they had a couple of diamonds brought up to them. They were still beautiful.
“What do you find so special about the diamonds?” Asked George.
When they explained that about six of them would be enough to live a life of luxury forever, George more than understood their love of eight cubic feet of them. Wow!
They stayed aboard the Karv’s mining vessel for two more days, because George explained that the mice were just a little shaken up after their battle and needed some time to do a series of adjusting. Carl wondered why they couldn't do that when Shadow was elsewhere, which started him rambling on about calibration factors to do with power flux and waveforms. Carl told him they would wait, mainly to shut him up, every now and again George credited them with Superhuman brains and that was just not so. They stayed put.
Carl quizzed him on the problems they had experienced with the attacking machines and the shocks they had received.
George was a little lost for words, if that were possible for George, but the only explanation he could furnish was that humans were of different biological build to the Yil.
“You think we should be a bit careful from now on then?” Carl asked.
“I think that would be the recommended procedure Carl.” George replied
Eventually they left the mining vessel, after a reunion farewell, and shook the 'hands' of many of the crew, who seemed really sorry to see them go, it was a quite moving experience.
Shadow passed out of the dock's force field and gently drifted apart from the huge cube of mineral and metal. It was a very large object.
“Well Pat,” Carl started,” we are really no nearer to finding Earth than we were a couple of months ago. Any ideas?”
“You know as well as I do that it's all hit and miss,” he replied,” pity we don't know more about our own sun, that would give George a better fix.”
“I am afraid that is not true Pat,” George commented,” it is quite possible that any Earth sun-light seen from here would be completely different from the phase you have on Earth now.”
“Not much of a change George, surely.” Said Carl.
“It is possible Carl.” George insisted.
“Well we don't know enough anyway, so there's no difference, is there.” Pat finished that topic off.
“I suppose we'll have to continue on the hit and miss system then,” Carl continued,” let's see if we can work out some sort of grid to follow. How close do we have to get for you to be able to either receive radio or recognise constellations from our memory pictures George?”
“Radio is about 100 light years and star patterns can be much further away but we must coincide with a good angle. The constellation view is the worst option, it is the radio more than anything else, although I will be able to pick out your Sun-Mercury-Venus-Earth-Mars layout if there is not too much cosmic interference about. That could be out as far as 1000 light years under good conditions, I am tracking for that configuration non-stop.”
“Sounds more hopeful when you put it like that George,” Pat murmured,” but I know the odds are way out of our favour.”
“Why don't we set up a square, or cubed, grid pattern of, say.... a thousand way-points and jump from one to the other with George doing the scanning?” Carl suggested.
“There is no problem with that Carl.” Replied George.” It will be very time consuming, I will need about ten minutes at each stop to pattern match.”
“Sounds bloody simple when you say it,” Pat grumbled,” but the 1000 or so waypoints will take an eternity to input into Nav.”
The holo sphere shimmered with light and became a mass of lines.
“Is that suitable?” Came a calm George.
“Is that programmed?” Asked Pat.
“Yes”.
“I said he was a bloody smart arse,” objected Pat,” but he's an efficient sod at the same time. What do you think of the scale Carl, enough distance?”
“Now it's difficult isn't it?” Said Carl.” What if the Earth is between two of these points, which are two thousand light years apart, we'd miss it.”
They were looking at the ultimate in Esso Road Maps, except this one was three or four million light years across, and that was only about. 00001 of the available area in their segment. It was all too vast to take in.
“What a bloody problem.” Pat stood there scratching his head.” We could compress it until the waypoints were 500 apart. What do you say Carl?”
“Blowed if I know, even 500's too far really, but where do we stop, if you know what I mean?”
“Let's put it down to 500 and hope we cross radio, if nothing comes of it we can cross it all again, once or twice more, on different waypoints until it's really saturated.” Pat reasoned, and his reasoning was pretty good, even if a very time consuming exercise, but they had to do something.
“Put it down to 500 George.” Carl instructed.
The holo shimmered and went to nearly solid yellow and then enlarged as George brought the scale up a bit.
“Let's try it at that, how many points are there, oh hang on I've got that on my Hud. It gets a bit confusing at times.” Carl said.
“You programmed it George, and it's all in memory?” Pat asked.
“A-affirmative.” Was George's reply.
“Where's that bloody fuse?” Said Pat.
“On my initiation?” Carl asked, Pat nodded, and with that, they were on their way again.
The screen shimmered and two seconds later they were looking at a different set of stars.
“All quiet on the Western Front George?” Carl asked.
“Correct Carl, I will call if I have anything positive and jump on auto if you so instruct.”
They carried out the required authorisation for George to initiate the jumps, otherwise it would be a long period of boring button pressing, nearly a hundred and seventy hours in all. Too long to have to sit there waiting for it to go by.
They played darts, drank beer, listened to music, ate, played darts, whilst George did his own thing. Rather him than me, was Carl's thought.