Cleo had taken the Gabriel out to a position near where the Faith was due to exit the wormhole. Sure enough, her calculations were spot on as a huge cloudy swirling portal, starting as a spot of light and quickly growing to over three kilometres wide, materialised ten thousand kilometres off their prow.
The Faith emerged, its huge bulk squeezing through the gate and immediately turning towards the star and ruffling its feathers to absorb energy.
‘Wow,’ said Ralt, reclining against a specially created leaning seat. ‘What an amazing sight – you neglected to tell me quite how magnificent she is.’
‘Not bad for a seven-thousand-year-old design, is she?’ said Linda.
‘Seven thousand years?’ questioned Pol. ‘How do you know it’s that old?’
‘Cleo did some research using what she was able to glean from Faith and a bit of modelling to work about how long it would have taken for all that floating rock and dust around Rea to build up around the ship and make it look like an odd-shaped satellite.’
‘So you’re saying our ancestors have been on Callamet for seven thousand of your years?’ questioned Ralt.
‘Thereabouts,’ said Ed. ‘Does that fit in with your own historical evidence?’
‘Our years are slightly shorter than yours, but maybe,’ said Ralt. ‘We certainly haven’t found any skeletal evidence from before that period.’
Linda piloted the Gabriel alongside the big ship and opened a communication channel.
‘Hello, Faith, can you hear me?’
‘Affirmative, Linda.’
‘Has the bridge been secure since we left?’
‘Affirmative.’
‘How many aliens remain on the vehicle?’
‘Two.’
‘Where are those two aliens?’
‘Passenger shuttle two one three in hangar two.’
‘Can you reduce the oxygen level in hangar two to make sure they stay there?’
‘Affirmative.’
‘Lastly, can you alter course and bring the Faith into a high orbit around the second planet in this system and wait there until further instructions?’
‘I concur with that order,’ said Pol.
‘Affirmative.’
The mammoth vessel began a lazy turn almost immediately and accelerated towards Callamet.
‘It sounds like you’ve built up a bit of a relationship with the bridge computer,’ said Ralt, nodding her approval.
‘You have to ask her very basic questions,’ said Pol.
‘And expect very basic answers,’ said Ed. ‘Apart from that, she’s quite congenial.’
‘If you’re on the bridge and Callametan, then you’re considered crew and she’ll obey your commands,’ said Pol.
‘She obeys Linda though!’ said Ralt.
‘I was given a field promotion by Pol,’ said Linda. ‘I’m an honorary Callametan.’
‘You’re most welcome to that privilege,’ the ambassador said, smiling. ‘Just grow a couple more arms and you’ll fit right in.’
‘Andrew,’ said Pol, looking a little sheepish.
‘What?’
‘Do I get my party today?’
‘Abso-bloody-lutely,’ he said, jumping up, ‘I’ll go and prepare the bar right now,’ and disappeared on the tube lift.
‘Ah crap,’ said Rayl. ‘There goes getting anything useful out of him tomorrow.’
Ed was in the port hangar with Andy, Pol and Ralt. The two Callametans were marvelling over the Theo EVA suits that formed up around the wearer’s figure, no matter what shape they were or how many limbs they had.
‘These make our suits look a bit clunky, don’t they?’ said Pol, swinging all her arms around and hopping from leg to leg. ‘Although it does feel like you’re coated in a thin layer of mud.’
Ralt, who admitted to never wearing any kind of spacesuit before, frowned as the strange nano-derived liquid suit oozed around her.
‘More like being dunked in a vat of industrial lubricant,’ she quipped.
They decided to take one of the Gabriel’s shuttles over to the Faith, as Cleo had installed a facility to create a docking tunnel. She also piloted them across, while Ed distributed weapons to everyone. He had Cleo alter the trigger guards on Ralt’s and Pol’s rifles to take into account their larger diameter fingers, and he also explained to them how the personal shields worked.
Ralt stood transfixed as the shuttle approached the monster ship. Ed smiled as he watched her marvelling at the thousands of absorbent panels fluttering and constantly changing position to glean the most from the star’s energy.
‘Pretty cool, aren’t they?’ he said.
Ralt nodded slowly and glanced back at Ed with a thoughtful expression.
‘One question I didn’t ask before,’ she said. ‘Have you been able to deduce where the ship originated? If they are our ancestors, it would be nice to have some idea of where we came from and why it was necessary to do this.’
‘Cleo’s working on that one,’ said Ed. ‘It’s difficult because of the zig-zag route taking them between reachable stars and then there’s also the question of was this the only colony ship, or just one of a fleet?’
‘Hmm,’ grunted Ralt, turning to gaze out the front screen again. ‘And if there were more – did they all have the same route – or different destinations?’
They were jolted out of their conversation by Cleo.
‘A dock is established,’ she said. ‘I asked Faith to open the outer airlock, but she insists she can only action commands from the crew.’
Pol rolled her eyes and entered the airlock at the side of the control cabin and peeked through the small window of the outer door.
‘Faith, can you hear me?’ she asked.
‘Affirmative, Pol.’
‘Can you detect my shuttle docked on your port side?’
‘Affirmative.’
‘Can you open the outer airlock door, please?’
‘I’m sorry, Dave. I’m afraid I can’t do that,’ mumbled Andy, getting a slap on the back of the head from Ed.
‘Affirmative.’
The door sank back and slid into the hull on the right side. Pol turned and nodded at Ed and Ralt, but gave Andy a quizzical look.
‘Shall we?’ she said, standing to one side.
Activating their helmets, they negotiated the pair of airlocks and Ed was first to step into the now familiar wide corridor stretching the length of the vessel.
‘This way,’ he said, leading them in the direction of the bridge.
Cleo had docked sensibly on the nearest airlock to the elevator, which they took up to the top floor and the bridge level. Ed noticed the first cabin doorway down on the left was quite badly damaged and had tell-tale blood stains around the frame. He didn’t look inside and pulled the door closed as best he could.
When they reached the huge bridge door, there were burn holes in the surface where the Moguls had begun trying to cut through with the plasma cutter.
‘They hadn’t got far then,’ said Andy, poking his finger in one of the holes.
‘Faith, can you hear me?’ asked Pol and shrugged at Ed with all four of her shoulders when she didn’t get a response.
‘I was afraid of that,’ said Ed. ‘We can only converse with Faith when we’re on the bridge or through Cleo when we’re off this ship.’
‘How do we get onto the bridge then?’ asked Ralt, eyeing the heavy door dubiously.
‘Same as last time,’ said Ed, pointing at Andy. ‘I’m going to need your help.’
He explained about the double locking mechanism and both he and Andy closed their eyes and concentrated on their particular combinations. As before, a thunk of the large bolts disengaging had them all stepping back as the huge circle of steel slowly swung upwards.
Andy and Ralt stared at the dead Mogul lying inside the door. The huge pool of blood surrounding its upper torso was almost black now.
‘Hello, Faith,’ said Pol. ‘It’s only us.’
‘Good morning, Pol, and good morning, Captain Ralt, it’s good to see you back.’
The other three stared at Ralt who grinned in return.
‘Faith, adopt programme beta 99, please,’ she said.
‘Affirmative.’
‘What’s going on, Ralt?’ asked Ed, stepping back and bringing his rifle up.
Andy did the same and Pol just stood there with a face of confusion.
‘Your weapons have been neutralised,’ said Ralt. ‘And not before time either. We rather underestimated your abilities when securing your services to recommission the Faith.’
She opened a small panel on the captain’s console and retrieved a strange-looking hand weapon.
Andy turned his weapon down to stun, aimed it at Ralt and pulled the trigger. Nothing happened.
Ralt looked down at herself and smiled again.
‘Ah good,’ she said. ‘I’m quite relieved actually, we weren’t completely sure that would work on your weapons.’
‘I take it that whatever this is, has been planned for some time?’ said Andy.
‘And you’re a direct descendant of the original captain?’ said Ed.
‘Yes, and no,’ said Ralt, nodding slightly. ‘Yes, the planning of this has been in play since we got stranded here many millennia ago and no, I’m not a descendant of the captain, I am the original captain.’
Pol suddenly straightened, her eyes widening in realisation.
‘You brought a hibernation pod with you to Callamet?’ she said.
‘Well, not just one, twelve actually,’ she said. ‘For the senior bridge officers.’
‘But why?’ asked Ed. ‘What is the point of all this?’
‘We need all the assets on this ship.’
‘You call colonists, assets?’ said Pol.
‘No, not them,’ Ralt said, with a sneer. ‘The equipment. There are over ten thousand spacecraft alone on this ship.’
‘Why not the colonists?’ asked Pol, a look of horror on her face. ‘They must be your first priority, well over a third of them are already dead.’
‘We don’t care if they all die,’ she spat. ‘They’re from the impure Wiele caste.’
‘The Wiele caste?’ said Pol. ‘But they’re just a mythical race that died out centuries ago.’
‘So you were led to believe and technically they did,’ Ralt said.
‘Only because you abandoned them to die,’ said Andy, leaning against a control panel and crossing his arms.
‘Actually, no. The ship was supposed to carry on to its destination.’
‘Without a crew and missing all the assets they’d need when they got there,’ said Ed, scowling at her.
‘What made you stop here in the first place?’ asked Pol.
‘Faith developed a programme glitch which she could only fix herself and while we waited for that to happen, we went exploring and found Callamet. We woke some of the colonist leaders and they said no. They voted to carry on to the original destination, not enough mineral assets on Callamet.’
‘And they were right too, weren’t they?’ said Pol, glowering at Ralt.
‘When we told them we were staying, they attempted an armed uprising to commandeer the vessel.’
‘Commandeer the ship?’ said Ed. ‘It was their ship in the first place?’
‘We weren’t taking it from them and anyway, the Blends turned up while we were on Callamet and tried to implant some of their killers amongst the colonists. There was only one of them and he didn’t realise some of us were on the second planet. When we returned in the shuttle, he attacked us, killing four of the crew. We think we wounded him, but he damaged our shuttle causing us to crash land back on Callamet and were never able to fly again.’
‘So, Faith never got the crew commands necessary to carry on with the mission,’ said Pol.
She walked over to the front row of control panels and pointed behind them.
‘You must have wounded him badly enough that he couldn’t finish transferring the pods through from his ship and eventually died here,’ she said.
‘The Blend got what he deserved and thanks to you, so did all the others.’
‘Except for two,’ said Andy.
‘We call them Moguls,’ said Ed. ‘They’re almost as friendly as you.’
‘They’re the reason we left our home in the first place,’ said Ralt, ignoring Ed’s dig. ‘And in answer to the earlier question, we were ship number three of five that all went in different directions.’
‘Where do I actually originate from then?’ asked Pol.
‘Callamet, Pol,’ she said. ‘We used the same name. It’s in another spiral arm a long way from here.’
‘How did the Mog – Blends find you?’ Andy asked.
‘Must have followed somehow,’ said Ralt, looking at the mummified body again. ‘I hope they didn’t follow the other four ships.’
‘Do you really believe the GDA is going to allow this?’ said Ed, shaking his head.
‘Of course,’ she said. ‘Because they’ll never know.’
Ed smiled.
‘Cleo, can you send a drone back to Dasos with everything that’s just been said and all the other evidence too, please?’
Apart from the humming of the bridge control panels, complete silence prevailed.
‘Cleo,’ he called again.
‘Ah, sorry, I’m afraid I had to disable your ship,’ Ralt said.
‘What?’ said Andy and Ed in unison.