Chapter 31
The Lilly was dead in space and only minimal ship systems had been operational, so the cold-start reset had no real effect on anyone. Within an hour, the ship was back to normal. Jason’s first order of business was to send the necessary FDL markers to the outpost that would allow for bidirectional communications. He was expecting a reply any minute.
Ricket stood with Dira in front of Perkins’ sealed MediPod. Jason found a countertop, grimaced, and carefully leaned against it.
“I don’t understand,” Jason said. “You can save a life, rebuild a heart, for God’s sake. What’s the big deal with simply changing him back?”
“At this point, the MediPod software does not recognize there is a problem. It will take me some time to reconfigure the software parameters,” Ricket said.
“Seems strange this could even happen,” Jason said, looking at Perkins through the window.
“MediPods typically can distinguish the species of the patient. But commands were input improperly. The chief confused the device to the point it defaulted to its default species condition, Caldurian.”
“The issue is, do we keep the XO in stasis while I figure this out, or bring him back now—for the interim?”
Dira continued, “Physically, Perkins will be fine; it’s more a question of how he’ll react to the physical anomaly.”
Jason took it all in. “So how much time are we talking about? Before you figure this out?”
“It could be as long as a week,” Ricket replied.
“What do you need from me?” Jason asked.
“The decision to wake him up or not,” Dira said.
“Okay, I still don’t understand why I’m involved. This is a medical issue, and you are the doctor, right?”
“Captain, the question is, do we need him back on the bridge? He’ll be an able-bodied officer,” Dira said. “If so, we’d like you to be here. Help explain things.”
“So we’ll bring him back while he has the body of a—” Jason stopped and looked through the MediPod’s window—“a Caldurian.”
“That’s right,” both Dira and Ricket said at the same time.
“Fine, wake him up. I’ll tell him about it. You can talk to him about his options, which don’t sound like there are any.”
Dira was at the control panel. In less than a minute, the MediPod was opening. Perkins’ eyes fluttered, then opened wide. Startled, he sat up.
“I’ve been stabbed!”
Jason stepped in closer and knelt down. “Easy, XO, you’re fine. Everything’s fine. Pirates are gone … you’ve been pretty much all patched up.”
Perkins looked somewhat relieved and laid back down. “That pirate, Stalls. He stabbed me in the heart.” Dira, Ricket and Jason watched as he crossed his arms over his chest.
“You can thank the chief for getting you here in time,” Jason said. “From what I understand, it was a close call.”
Perkins nodded. “I’m surprised the old coot knew how to operate one of these things. They’re a bit tricky. Don’t need to tell you that, huh, Dira?”
Perkins’ arms were moving now, fingers opening and closing. Jason and Dira exchanged quick glances.
“Hey, listen. There’s something we need to speak with you about,” Jason said, kneeling down again. “You said it yourself, these devices are tricky. And the truth is, they’re very tricky.”
Perkins wasn’t listening. All of his attention was focused forward. Holding up his two hands in front of his face, and the long, tapered fingers of a Caldurian. “Now that’s weird …”
* * *
The FDL connection was established as soon as Jason entered the bridge. Once situated in the command chair, one of the Gordon twins, Jason wasn’t sure which one it was, opened the channel. Admiral Reynolds, hair somewhat tussled, acknowledged his son with a brief smile.
“Good to see you made it back, Jason. I’m looking forward to hearing about it all. But that will have to wait. Earth is under attack. Right now I’m sitting in the shuttle you left behind. We phase-shifted to the second underground location. In fact, we’ve shuttled more than one hundred and fifty people down here.”
“I didn’t think there was enough space for that many people,” Jason said.
“Well, there is, and there’s something else. It’s inhabited.”
“Say again?”
“You heard me.”
“Fine. First tell me about the attack. Who’s attacking?”
“Three ships. Small—each about a quarter of the size of The Lilly,” the admiral said.
“That would be the Emperor’s Guard. From what I understand, those ships, like The Lilly, are actually Caldurian technology. The may be more advanced than The Lilly by as much as a hundred years. But make no mistake about it, it’s the Craing behind the wheel, not the Caldurians,” Jason said.
“Seems the ships are being selective about their targets. They’re not going after government seats of power, or even military instillations or assets,” the admiral remarked, looking confused.
“Maybe they’re looking for The Lilly.”
“I thought that too, but that doesn’t add up either. The ships are situated here in Earth’s outer orbit, where they’re scanning as deep as ten miles below the surface. Every so often one of the ships comes down to ground level and phase-shifts somewhere subterranean.”
“Still, they could be looking for The Lilly. But you’re right, that does sound strange. You said Earth was under attack, what have they attacked?” Jason asked.
“Anything that leaves the ground—commercial planes, helicopters, that sort of thing, as well as orbital satellites. They’re taking those out, one by one, any time they come close to their position in orbit. Needless to say, communications are a mess.”
“What about the Allied Craing fleet?” Jason asked.
“Three battle cruisers and one light cruiser in high orbit were destroyed before anything else. The ones on the ground have been left alone. Strange.”
“What does Washington have to say?” Jason asked.
“Well, they wanted to deploy the rest of the Craing Allied fleet until one, they saw how quickly the four in orbit went down, and two, they discovered we don’t have trained pilots for them anyway. They’re waiting to see what demands are coming; so far there haven’t been any. They’ve been checking in on an hourly basis about The Lilly’s whereabouts. As far as they’re concerned, she may be the planet’s only hope of defeating those ships.”
Jason noticed Ricket standing at his side and looking at the display, his little wheels turning, literally.
The admiral continued, “What’s the status of the Loop? How did it go on the Craing worlds?”
“Loop’s destroyed. And, subsequently, there appears to be an uprising, so I don’t think we’ll need to worry about the Craing bothering us again. At least not for the near term, other than the three Emperor’s Guard vessels there in orbit.”
“We need you back here now, Jason. I can’t emphasize enough what’s at stake. Perhaps planet Earth itself. What’s your ETA?” the admiral asked, looking impatient.
“Tomorrow afternoon at the latest. We’ll see if we can come up with a plan of attack en route,” Jason replied, looking over at Ricket.
Ricket took a step forward. “Admiral, those Caldurian ships. They were built for battle, whereas The Lilly was primarily built as a natural sciences and exploration vessel.”
“I don’t know, The Lilly seems pretty capable to me,” the admiral replied.
“From what I’ve discovered, as hostilities between Caldurian and the Craing worlds grew hundreds of years ago, defenses and weaponry were added as needed. How The Lilly compares now, I don’t know. Our only advantage may be the Craing’s unfamiliarity with these ships’ technology and capabilities,” Ricket said.
“Dad, we know we have to get back there as soon as possible.” Jason was still curious about something. “Before we sign off, who exactly is inhabiting the underground cavern?”
The admiral looked amused. “They are a skittish bunch and keep their distance. From what we’ve discovered, there are many more caverns down here, most much lower—maybe as deep as five miles. These subterranean caverns are interconnected throughout much of Texas and a good portion of Mexico.”
“And you’ve seen them?”
“Oh, yes, now that we know what to look for; they show up on the shuttle’s short and long range scans. There seem to be multiple tribes.”
“You’ve seen them? What do they look like?” Jason asked again.
“We’ve done some exploring. As I said, they’re skittish and typically move to deeper caverns whenever we approach. One time we caught several off-guard. Saw them up close before they ran off. Truth is, they look a little like Craing. But tall, like a human,” the admiral replied.