“Do the showers work?” Alex asked.
“Uhh, yes, sir!”
“Good. Staff meeting, thirty minutes.”
Alex left the bridge and went to his cabin nearby. There were a few things tossed around the room, having not been secured. For the most part it looked and felt as it should, except that now, instead of him walking in and feeling immediate peace and relaxation, his modified mind raced with thoughts, emotions, and calculations. Peace and the feeling of being home never came to him.
Having heightened senses made for a unique showering experience. He also found it to be numbing to his mind. There he could relax and find his peace. It irritated him that it would cost the use of precious resources and the tiny space of a shower stall. It wasn’t long after the shower that he began to get a major headache. It was painful, but he managed to work through it and arrived just before the meeting was due to start. Without taking his eyes off the datapad he could sense and feel who was walking into the room. He also noticed he was able to read much faster than normal, with amazing comprehension. It also occurred to him that he no longer felt his headache.
Alex read forty-five detailed technical log reports and damage assessments within a ten-minute span. Still, he had to remember to inhale so he could talk. “I am pleased to know you have survived. We have been through a terrible ordeal, but we are alive and now we must endure.” Alex stumbled for a moment while he was bombarded with new feelings from those around him. The most common feeling was a sense of endless introspection, however, the chief was emanating anger. Alex glanced at his chief, whose face appeared calm, pleasant even. Alex stalled another moment to consider how to proceed.
“Chief, your reports were very detailed despite the large amount of work you’re forced to contend with. You have done an excellent job so far.”
Alex felt the chief’s anger fade away, replaced with pride. But he still seemed angry. “Thank you, sir,” the chief said.
“Chief, what are your teams focused on right now?”
“Sealing and re-pressurizing critical areas, sir.”
“Once that is done, I would like the subspace communication back online. The last thing we told Earth was that we were under attack, which was some time ago. They probably think we were destroyed.”
“Yes, sir.”
Alex was curious as to why the chief was still angry but he didn’t want to zero in on him during the staff meeting, plus he was continually being assaulted as the emotions of others in the room shifted. It was not easy getting used to this new dimension of conversation. If he focused too much on the feelings of others, it caused him to lose focus on the conversation itself.
“Sir, you seem tired. You want to postpone the meeting for later?” Lanora whispered at his side.
Alex barely shook his head no. “Doc, have you had a chance to conduct a medical evaluation on Jeremiah?” He looked at the ships doctor someone he didn’t know all that well but came highly recommended by Gloria.
“Well, visually he seems OK. I’m still running his blood work and he did mention a lot of things that are very concerning. I’d like to talk to you about in private.” Said the Doc.
Alex felt no reason not to talk about their transformation to the bridge staff, but he decided to follow her lead on this. “Sure thing.”
“Jack, how are we doing?”
“Well, ship’s weapons are down, I have no way of knowing if they were physically damaged in the last attack or if it’s some minor electrical issue. In addition to those killed on your diplomatic trip, we lost five more soldiers on the Enterprise. The gym was one of the first rooms that decompressed in the last attack, killing the five in the room at the time. I’ve got another in medical, sliced his hand open moving debris around.”
“When this meeting is over, I want you to contact Gs Ho Tae, he’s expecting your call. He’s going to allow you to debrief him.” Alex felt intense curiosity from his staff; he paused to suppress the feeling and struggled to move on. “Not only about the incident of the attack, but over his species as a whole. He is the rightful leader of their military.” Alex grew stern and focused intently on Jack. “Jack, I want you to debrief him as you would me or Grissom, not interrogate him. You will be compiling the first detailed—I’m sure—preliminary military capabilities of an alien planet. Gloria, I want you to do the same with their pinnacle doctor.”
“Yes, sir,” Jack said. “But you should know I would debrief you and Grissom differently.”
“Really, in what way?”
Jack smiled wide, “Well, sir, I’d ask you, how did things go? And you would talk until there was nothing left to say. With Major Grissom, I’d have to ask a thousand specific questions.”
A few people in the room chuckled.
“Sir,” Lanora said, stopping his rhythm. He felt an odd emotion coming from her. “What happened down there?”
Alex stopped a moment and thought about how best to answer. Should he tell them everything, or leave some parts out like state secrets? He eyed one of the many cameras in the corners of the room.
“Well, we crashed. Jeremiah and I left the crashed ship, escorted by our new friends. We made our way to a hangar of sorts where we were evaluated for injuries. Then we focused on getting to a transmitter to send a message to the ship. The planet at the time was undergoing a coup and the capital was ground zero. We fought our way to the communications gear with our new friends and sent you help after the coup failed.”
“In what way are they friends?” Jack asked, almost demanded. Alex felt the anger radiate from many in the room.
“Try to remember, it was a coup. Let me put it this way, imagine the Democrats or Republicans—doesn’t matter which—try to take over the government through a swift military action. Then they fail, so things slowly go back to normal. That’s what happened on the planet when we showed up.”
“We caused the coup?” Gloria asked with deep concern.
“We triggered some deep-seated beliefs. We were the catalyst, no doubt. Anyway, after it was all over, we formed an alliance of sorts.”
“Doesn’t the council need to approve such a major decision?” Lanora asked.
“It’s not a formal alliance yet. It’s more like a pact between close families. But yes, you are correct.”
Alex did his best to hide the fact that he didn’t even think about the council when he made that agreement with the Gothan leader. Now he wondered what he was going to have to do to get it approved.
***
The next day Alex walked into the subspace communications room. They had sent a message to Earth several minutes earlier, and he waited for a response with the tech who was listening to a recent exchange of communication between what sounded like two different alien signals.
“Our system can decode one of these signals into something audible,” the tech said as he pushed a few buttons on the screen and one of the signals was replaced with another.
“Grahh juke, dash ma`th to ma. Ah ie oie teshmandoke.”
Before, when Alex had heard aliens speak, it went in one ear and out the other without much thought and only confusion. Now for some reason Alex was analyzing the words and structure of the phrasing. He felt confident he could eventually translate the language if given enough time and material.
This was certainly a new noticeable benchmark in his abilities. “I think that might be an easier one to figure out.” Alex looked down at the sitting tech. He returned his gaze with a raised eyebrow.
“How about this one, we recorded it a few days ago,” the tech said.
This sound was less a language than a collection of noises. Tick tick doink. Screech static tick tick tick ssssss mooam mooam.
Alex agreed that it was more challenging. The static was a clue to him, however. “I don’t think that was a language. More like a data transmission.”
A red light blinked on the screen. “We are getting a message coded from Earth. It’s from Timmy.”
“Upload the message to my p
rofile, I’ll read it in my cabin.”
“Yes, sir.”
Alex made his way back to his cabin with anticipation and pulled out his datapad and retrieved the message while on the way. As soon as he sat down in one of the comfortable chairs he read the message: (Alex, we are all very happy to hear your ship survived and you are alive. Equally we are all very intrigued by your new friends. Grissom has been trying to get the Discovery up and running for a rescue mission but sounds like that is no longer necessary. A lot has happened since you left. I’m not sure where to start, really. The main reason I contacted you is in reference to the orb. We have been communicating with it and we have been keeping that info from Grissom. The orb told me you were alive and when you eventually send word back to Earth, that I was to tell you to go to these coordinates.)
Alex watched as an image appeared with a dotted line to a star he had already visited. Alex remembered that its planets were empty, devoid of life. There had been a large slow-moving asteroid belt of ice chunks far from the star.
(Alex, there’s a reason we haven’t told Grissom or the others but it’s too complicated to explain here. Trust me that you need to go there, and don’t tell anyone why. I’m glad you’re OK. Your friend, Timmy.)
Alex typed a message on his datapad to Lanora. (My cabin ASAP.)
Within a couple minutes Lanora knocked once and entered Alex’s cabin.
“Sir!” She stood at attention within the doorway, though he could tell she was very concerned about something.
“Get in here and close the door,” he said as he stood and walked closer to her. “Here, read this.” Alex handed her his datapad. After giving her a few moments to read and digest the message he said, “What do you think?” He felt her concern replaced by relief and he wondered what she had been afraid of.
“Well, it’s a matter of trust, it seems. He has given us no real explanation as to why we need to divert except acknowledging it has to do with the orb. To be honest, I don’t really know Timmy all that well. What do you think?” She handed him the datapad back.
“Timmy doesn’t make requests like this.”
“You mean he’s never asked you to go to another solar system before. That’s odd!” Lanora said, rolling her eyes with a smile.
Alex made a face. “No, I mean he’s never been vague before. He’s always technical and specific about what he wants or needs.” Alex focused on Lanora. “You think we should go?”
Lanora pulled out her datapad and began inputting information. Alex couldn’t see from his chair, but he patiently waited for whatever she was doing.
“It seems it will add nine days to our trip if we divert to that system.”
“Other than to make repairs, is there any reason why we couldn’t accept a nine-day delay?”
“Other than that we’re completely defenseless if we find trouble in that system.”
“Well last time we were there it was about as empty and boring as it gets. But to be on the safe side we will peek our way into the system, plot the course and let’s get underway as soon as possible.”
“Chief says we should be FTL-capable by tomorrow night. He wants to run some safety tests in the afternoon to make sure we won’t atomize.”
“Really, so quickly? I figured the FTL drive would take much longer to repair.”
“The drive went down because some cables got sliced with a kinetic round. Once he patches the cables, it will be good to go.”
Alex looked down at his datapad as another subspace transmission arrived from Earth. It was from Grissom. Alex took a moment and downloaded the message and sent a copy to Lanora.
(Glad to hear you guys are OK. I can get the Discovery in space to bring supplies if you need in a hurry, just say the word. Please at the earliest complete a tactical report on the Gothans. Let me know what you were up against. Are they still a threat? Send your daily logs for review at your earliest.)
When Lanora finished reading she looked up at Alex.
“So tell me what really happened down there,” Lanora asked, expecting a better story than the one he gave the staff during the meeting.
Alex gazed hard straight ahead as he considered a response. “That was pretty much it. Of course, there are a few details I left out, such as swaying grass and killer plants, but you got the gist of it.”
“Killer plants?” Lanora asked curiously, and Alex smiled.
Chapter 14
Getting Answers
Grissom walked into a room that looked like a torture chamber for robots. Parts and wires hung from the walls, tools littered the area. It was in complete disarray. Screws, nuts, and washers lay on the floor. “What am I looking at?” Grissom asked, glancing at Philip.
“Well, it’s our queen hunter, sir.”
“Tell me everything.” He looked at a machine that was about two feet tall and didn’t resemble anything he had ever seen before.
“It primarily uses these treads to get around. If it gets stuck somewhere, it will use these four metal hydraulic arms to lift it up to fourteen inches on any corner to get out of its position. It’s completely autonomous, works underwater, uses Thean supercapacitor to carry a charge, and can operate for about one hundred and twenty days under heavy load before the battery drains. It has dual optics to identify the presence of Zorn. Once it targets a queen, it rolls right up to it and detonates two pounds of high explosives. Before it detonates it will transmit its GPS coordinates and data logs. Downside is we have to be in range to receive the transmission.”
“Does it travel at random or…”
“It will follow a standard grid search pattern until it hits fifteen percent power remaining, then it will attempt to travel to a designated area for easy pickup and repair.
“Can it flip itself over if it rolls over?”
“Yes.” Philip pushed a button and a rod extended from the front right corner of the machine and extended up for about three feet.
Grissom walked over and with his hands rolled the machine over onto its topside.
“Now do it.”
Philip pushed the button again.
Grissom watched as the rod pushed the front right of the machine up until its weight caused it to tumble back onto its tracks. The rod slowly descended back into the machine.
“Excellent. Now how many can you make?”
“Two an hour for each fabricator.”
“Not the easy production I was hoping for.”
“It’s all the possibilities we had to give it, ability to transmit info, right itself if it falls and flips over, that kind of thing. Without those it would save a lot of time, but the communications circuitry is what takes the most time to fabricate.”
“How much of a difference?”
“We could do six an hour per fabricator.”
“I like the idea of knowing where the bug holes are. We can send recon teams to make sure we killed the queen.”
“Maybe some of both, then?” Philip suggested.
“No… stick to the better drones. Get started on production right away.”
“Yes sir.”
***
Drake knocked on the door holding a glass of ice water.
“Come in.”
He turned the knob and pushed the door open, casually taking a sip of water.
“What can I do for you?” Drake asked. He had been summoned to meet Jorge in his office.
“I’ve heard some disturbing rumors and I need to verify if they are true and you’re the only one who can pull off getting that information. So before you even ask, since I know you so well, tell me what’s in it for you? The safe zone I have created is going to be opening up a new residential district. Part will be new construction, and part will be reallocation of property existing. You can take your pick of property. Built or otherwise.”
“What do you want me to do?”
“The rumor is that the U.S. government has stolen a cargo shuttle and has begun a production assembly on working shuttles.”
“
You’re thinking I can walk in with my credentials and inspect the property for myself.”
“Exactly.”
Drake frowned and shook his head. “I don’t know.”
Jorge anticipated this reaction as he had seen it many times from him before. “What do you want?” he responded.
“I want my own shuttle. I know you’re making more. Just give me one of them.”
“Give me the information I need, and you’ll get your shuttle.”
Drake smiled wide and stood up to shake Jorge’s hand. They shook.
“I’ll need a ride, to wherever you think they are building replicas.”
“In the northern states…I’ll give you the ride myself.”
“When do we leave?”
“How soon can you be ready?”
***
“Hey, wake up.”
Timmy grudgingly opened his eye rolled and sat up on the edge of the bed. “What is it?”
“The orb wants to talk to you.” Pete said.
Adrenaline shot throughout Timmy’s body, and he was immediately fully awake and rushing toward the orb. It had been dark for several days since they had last communicated.
Timmy nearly jogged to the orb and sat down in one of the nearby chairs.
“Timmy, did you send the message to Alex yet?” The orb started.
“I thought you were monitoring the situation closely. Don’t you already know that?” Timmy asked with continued suspicion.
“Our attention has been elsewhere recently, answer the question.”
“Yes, I have sent the message, but I received no reply. I don’t know if he will do it.”
“It is vital that he does,” the orb replied ominously.
“Why is this so important?”
“Our communication window is closing, and those answers require a lot of time.”
“You don’t control the orb?”
“Only temporarily.”
“So whose orb is this?” Timmy asked while looking at Pete.
“Created by the Ikons.”
“Who are they?” Timmy asked, but the orb went dark. “Damn it! How long until the orb wakes up again?” Timmy remained motionless, breathing heavily.
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