Chapter 33
Jason reached the bridge to find it had indeed undergone a radical transformation. It was larger, somehow, with the forward bulkhead extending ten feet further toward the bow. It seemed wider as well. Not only were there additional workstations, the existing ones contained numerous new virtual displays and more controls than Jason thought possible.
Ricket sat at one of the new consoles, his mechanical hands moving fast across virtual keys.
“Captain Stalls has given us an ultimatum. We have three minutes before they fire on us, actually, on this vessel. I don’t think they’re bluffing. Sensors show they’re powering weapons.”
Jason took in a deep breath. “I’m getting really tired of this guy.” He held up a hand to put Perkins on hold for a second. “Ricket, what’s your timeframe for moving this thing, getting it into FDL?”
Ricket didn’t turn around and spoke while he worked. “Propulsion systems on the vessel are coming online now. I need five minutes.”
Jason took the command chair. “Open a channel to Captain Stalls.”
“Good to see you again, Captain,” Stalls said with his typical superior tone. His face was bruised and his nose bandaged. “Needless to remind you, I’m sure. You are still in within the limits of our territorial space. As you have undoubtedly noticed, we are fully prepared to destroy that vessel, or what ever the hell it is, if you attempt to move it or jump to FDL.”
“No need. It’s all yours, Stalls. Just give us a minute or two to get my people back on board and clear out of your space,” Jason replied.
“Unfortunately, I don’t think you have any intention of abandoning that vessel, Captain. Several moments ago we detected its propulsion systems coming online.”
Jason looked confused, as if this was all news to him. “Well, our ship just came back online; you must be detecting our drives.”
“Shut it down. Right now, Captain Reynolds. You have ten seconds.”
Jason’s eyes went to Ricket, who quickly turned in his seat shaking his head. “We still need two minutes.”
Annoyed, Stalls’ dark eyes glared back at Jason. “It will be a shame to destroy such an amazing vessel, Captain. You and I both know the technology aboard that ship is far beyond anything—”
Jason cut him off; he had an idea. “Listen to me, Stalls: you said it yourself. This vessel, or whatever it is, is far more advanced than anything you’ve come across. Do you really think it would be sitting out here defenseless … out here in open space? You’ve already lost hundreds of your crew to our defenses, are you prepared to lose more? This ship has the capability to vaporize your entire fleet in seconds.” Jason glanced over to Orion, who had been working at the new tactical console. As if knowing she was being watched, she nodded her head and held up two fingers. What is it with everybody needing two minutes?
“Just shut down now, Captain. No more stalling.”
Jason shrugged, “You’re making a mistake. What’s two more minutes?”
Jason watched as Stalls looked away and nodded to someone off screen.
“Incoming!” Orion yelled. “And it’s a whole lot of missiles. Over one thousand and counting. Captain, looks like a variety of conventional, nukes and fusion-tipped.”
“Break the connection,” Jason barked. Captain Stalls’ face disappeared from the display.
“ETA, Gunny?”
“Less than a minute, sir.”
“Ricket?”
“We’re moving, sir, but it won’t be fast enough,” he replied.
“Orion, what have you discovered? Do we have shields? Weapons?”
“Both, sir. Think I almost have it figured out.”
“Thirty seconds to impact,” Perkins yelled from the adjoining station next to Gunny’s.
McBride at the helm spun in his seat, “Captain, I think The Lilly can—”
“Just do it, Helm—whatever the hell it is, we’re out of time.”
“Eight seconds to impact,” Perkins yelled.
The display flashed white.
“We’re right smack in the middle of their fleet, sir,” Perkins yelled.
Jason spun in his seat, looking up at the 360 degree display. Sure enough, pirate warships encircled them on all sides. Hundreds of them.
“What the hell did you do, McBride?” Jason barked.
“Sorry, sir, I realized we still had the capability to phase-shift The Lilly, along with the Caldurian vessel. Not far but … I didn’t have time to set the coordinates. I guessed.”
“Cap, Caldurian ship’s shields are up,” Orion said, smiling. “Oh, and we destroyed eighteen pirate vessels when we shifted along with the Crystal City into the middle of their fleet.”
“Open a channel to Captain Stalls,” Jason ordered.
“Channel open, sir.”
Stalls’ cocky bravado was replaced with seething hatred. “Mark my words, Reynolds, I’m going to kill you. But before I do, I’m going to take your wife as my personal whore and sell your daughter off to space slavers. This isn’t over. Don’t forget to look over your shoulder, Reynolds. I’m coming for you.”
With that, the display went black. One by one, the remaining raider ships headed off into deep space. They’d won the moment, but Jason knew his troubles with Captain Stalls had only just begun.
* * *
Two hours later, Jason was seated alone at his desk in the captain’s ready room. It had taken that long to establish an FTL link with the outpost back on Earth. It had been a while since he’d last checked in, and there was a lot to cover. When his father’s face appeared, it was evident he was sitting in the cramped confines of the shuttle.
“We’re not back yet because we’ve been delayed—several times now. A group of raiders—pirates—infiltrated The Lilly while we were moving through HAB 12. Recognize the name Captain Stalls?”
“Oh yeah, know the name well. A constant thorn in the side of the Allied forces. How the hell did they get on board?”
“Turns out it was our illusive mole, Seaman Perkins from Engineering. Not sure what his real name is, but apparently he’s Captain Stalls’ little brother.”
“That’s a bad bunch, Jason, not the kind of enemy you want to go up against,” the admiral said.
“So where are you—are you underground right now?”
“Yes. Each branch of the military has poured into the outpost. You wouldn’t recognize the place. Thought it best to keep any phase-shift technology away from them.”
“What about the three vessels, the Emperor’s Guard, in orbit?” Jason asked.
“Still there, and they’ve increased the number of subterranean phase-shifts by the hour. They’ve also concentrated their search now to the Americas.”
“Have they phase-shifted anywhere near the outpost?”
“No, the lower United States and upper Mexico have yet to be touched. One ship has been moving across Canada; the other two are making their way up South America.”
“The last time we talked, you described the inhabitants as looking similar to Craing, but tall, like humans. Is that correct?”
“That’s right. Why?”
“It’s just that what you described is similar to beings we’ve discovered on what we believe to be another Caldurian vessel. It’s actually more a city than a vessel. ”
“You’ve discovered a Caldurian city in open space?”
“More like it discovered us. Dad, it’s amazing. Beautiful. Highly advanced. It emerged from a wormhole not far from where we were located. At first we thought it could be a random result from us closing down the Craing Loop, but Ricket now believes it, what we’re calling the Crystal City, moves through space by generating its own wormhole. It would be too much of a coincidence for it to have shown up right where we were, where The Lilly was located in open space.”
“Have you contacted them? Who are they?” the admiral asked.
“We’ve shifted The Lilly onto the Crystal City itself. Unfortunately, the populace is dead, many thousands dead. Subsequently, The Lilly’s bridge has been reconfigured. It’s now taken over as the ship’s de facto control center. We’re thinking it may be the Crystal City’s default. Something that happens when reunited with another Caldurian vessel such as The Lilly.”
The admiral furrowed his brow. “But you’re still on your way back to Earth?”
“Yes, but there’s one more thing. These Caldurians had nano-tech devices in their heads. It’s what killed them all. It’s virtually the same tech we have in our own heads, Dad.
“Personally, I believe we need to get as far away from this vessel as possible. Ricket warns that if he is unable to further investigate, you, me and the rest of The Lilly crew may eventually be facing the same fate.”
Jason wondered why he hadn’t made the connection before. Those three Caldurian ships in orbit around Earth had first been discovered underground, lying dormant. Just as The Lilly had been. Was there a link?
“Dad, fifteen years ago when you and Granddad first discovered The Lilly, you mentioned both the AI and Ricket’s memory had been wiped.”
“That’s right. We had no idea what we were doing. Once we cleared away the rubble, we were allowed access to the ship, didn’t have to break in or anything. Once inside, it was dark as a tomb—seemed to be dead. Apparently, though, minimum ship functions were still running, because when we started moving about the ship, more and more systems came back online. All of a sudden a repeating voice sounded.” The admiral paused, as if searching his memories. “It said something like, Bio-form ‘human’ detected, prior function complete, you may enter a new start access code … something along those lines. It repeated that over and over again, really annoying. As if the AI had been waiting for us, or someone, to enter a new code. When we entered the bridge, it came alive. The big overhead wrap-around display came on. At the nearest console that same message appeared—”
“Like a sentence written in English?” Jason butted in, looking skeptical.
“Yes, in English. I wouldn’t be able to read Caldurian, now would I?” the admiral replied, irritated by Jason’s interruption.
Jason nodded; stupid question—The Lilly AI was incredibly intelligent. It would have detected his father’s and grandfather’s speech and language patterns.
“So what did you do?”
“I didn’t know what the hell to do. Grandpa Gus suggested I enter a number I’d remember later, so I entered my social security number.”
“So that brought the ship alive?”
“No, another annoying message started to repeat. Something to the effect: initiate biomechanical sub-routines. Over and over again … we wanted to kill the f*cking thing. We didn’t find Ricket for several days.”
“Where was he?”
“That’s the strange part. Ricket wasn’t inside the ship. Ol’ Gus couldn’t take that repeating voice anymore and was outside clearing dirt and rocks from the front of the ship. He found Ricket buried. Your grandfather fetched me from the ship, and together we pulled Ricket free.”
“Why was Ricket outside the ship?” Jason asked, confused.
The admiral simply stared back at Jason.
“Sorry, go on.”
“Ricket was lifeless. Then all of a sudden, his little gears and actuators started to move, and then he too started repeating the same phrase, only this time he added something else—something like: enter command authorization code for Reechet biomechanical sub-routines. Obviously, there wasn’t a keypad to enter anything, so I just said my social security number aloud.”
“Wait, so how did you get the name Ricket from Reechet?”
“What? Oh, your grandfather’s hearing was terrible. He heard it as Ricket. I corrected him numerous times, but Ricket seemed to stick. He’s been Ricket ever since.” The admiral smiled as he recalled the memory of his father.
“Anyway, we were able to converse with Ricket. He seemed to be confused at first, had no idea who he was, or why he was lying beneath a mound of dirt next to a space ship. But his deductive powers, as you’ve discovered, were quick to put things together. Apparently, the ship, The Lilly AI, had reconfigured Ricket’s internal software. I haven’t been able to connect the dots with that aspect yet.”
“Dad, suppose those Caldurian vessels in orbit were mothballed underground, same as The Lilly had been. But just because The Lilly AI and Ricket’s memory were wiped doesn’t mean the other ships’ memories were wiped.” Jason was figuring things out as he spoke.
“I don’t get the correlation, Jason.”
“To be honest, I’m not sure I do, either. But suppose The Lilly, or whoever was controlling her, was after the same thing those Craing are after now? Maybe they are searching for something—something down there in that subterranean world?”
“You’re thinking it has something to do with the inhabitants beneath North America, in this area?” the admiral asked.
“Well, it’s not a big leap, Dad. From how you’ve described them, they look exactly like the Caldurians on the Crystal City—right? Maybe they are early Caldurians.”
“So what are you thinking? That this is some sort of return to mecca or their homeland?”
“No, well, actually that kinda works too,” Jason said, sensing that the puzzle pieces were starting to come together, but not quite.
“Jason, I have to be honest with you; the inhabitants down here look fairly primitive. They’re running around in animal furs. They’re cave men. There’s certainly no advanced technology going on down here,” the admiral added, looking like he was going to say something more.
“What?”
“You say that ship, that Crystal City, can generate its own wormhole to move about the universe?” the admiral asked.
“That’s what Ricket concludes … makes sense, though.”
“Having the ability to move about the universe with that kind of ease—” Jason’s father stopped mid-sentence, then continued: “Jason, as powerful as the Loop was for the Craing, it would be nothing compared to this technology. With the Loop they needed to map the various end-points across the universe, which they had no control over. Here, they could traverse anywhere at any time. We’re talking about the secret to totally unrestricted, near instantaneous space travel.”
Jason nodded. “Perhaps when those three Caldurian ships came alive, something else happened. Perhaps the Craing learned some sort of Caldurian wormhole travel secrets. Secrets that could only be fully-uncovered in one place.”
“Earth,” they both said at the same time.
“Anyway, we estimate the three vessels in orbit will discover our location here beneath the Chihuahuan desert within the next twenty-four hours. If what you’re saying is correct, and they’re looking for clues to unlock the secret of Caldurian wormhole travel, we need to stop them. As important as it was to bring down the Craing Loop, and it certainly was, we have to stop the Craing again and those three ships.”
“Dad, one more thing. Off subject. How well did you know Dira, when you first assembled the crew for The Lilly?”