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Iota Eridani has nine planets orbiting it. The sensor scans show that there are no habitable planets or moons in this star system. I can scratch this one off the list. Amber says, “I am picking up a metallic object in orbit around the fifth moon of the sixth planet. It may be a spaceship.”
I ask Persephone, “Is there any response to our comm signals?” Jewel is in sickbay with Miranda doing her annual examination. She likes going there about as much as I do. When she gets back, she is going to be a real charmer.
“Negative, there is nothing at all.”
“It might be a derelict or a piece of space junk. It won't hurt to take a closer look. Nugget, set course for the sixth planet, increase our speed to twenty-five hundred kilometers per second.” There is no one here to nag at me about speeding.
Persephone is working on improving the navigation subroutines to safely exit hyperspace closer to the inner planets of star systems, instead of the standard five light-days out from the outermost planet. If it can be safely done, it will save us months or longer in our search for the Sol system, especially, with most of the star systems we are visiting restricting our speed to five hundred kilometers per second. In theory, it should work as the mathematics is correct, but when we run the simulations, they always have disastrous results.
When we get closer to the planet, Nugget adjusts our course to bring us into orbit around the fifth moon. The object Amber has detected with the sensors is definitely a spaceship, most of one anyhow. Much of the aft section is missing. With the maximum magnification of our optical sensors, I can make out its name. Painted on the bow, with blue letters, is the name, Excelsior.
There is no telling how long the ship has been here in orbit. I remember my father telling me a story that has a spaceship with that name. It can’t be the same ship. At least, I don’t think it can. The Excelsior Doc told me about was used as a Trojan Horse to smuggle soldiers aboard a Coalition space station near the end of the war between the Alliance and the Coalition of Free Worlds. The mass exodus to the Andromeda galaxy was triggered by the loss of the space station which ended the war.
Enough of the Excelsior is intact that it is worth exploring. I am hoping the memory in the navigation computer and the captain’s log is still intact. It is possible that there is useful information in them that can help us get to the Sol system.
Persephone has to come with me. I am considering taking one of the other bridge officers with me, mainly because I am not ready to fly the Medusa assault shuttlecraft again. The ship is too fast, it scares the hell out of me. I want something fast, in case we need to leave in a hurry, so using a shuttlecraft is out of the question.
The Keshian starfighters only seat two, so Nugget is staying here this trip. Jewel hasn’t returned from sickbay. “Speak of the devil.”
Jewel says, with fire in her eyes, “I don't need any crap from you too!”
Okay, no problems with her examination. She just needs time to calm down. She definitely isn’t coming with us. “Amber, you are coming with me and Persephone. We are taking your Marauder. Nugget, you have the controls until I get back.”
We leave the bridge and take the transport car to the shuttle bay. Amber does a quick walk around Marauder number two. What is left of my Marauder—two ejection seats—have been stripped of their usable parts. The rest was put into the recycle bins. The Medusa assault shuttle I last flew is parked on the ready line waiting for me and Persephone to use it again.
Amber finishes her walk-around inspection. We board her ship. She goes forward to the cockpit and sits on the pilot seat. Persephone and I sit behind her. The copilot seat is reserved for Jewel when they fly together.
She starts the engines and repulsor-lift. The Marauder lifts off the deck. She raises the landing gear, taxies to the take-off line, then slams the throttles full forward. When we are clear of the Carpacia, she turns to a heading that will take us to the Excelsior, and pulls the throttles back.
It isn’t long before she is firing the braking thrusters and flying over what is left of the Excelsior’s hull. She turns the search lights on, and pans them over the hull. The ship has been in battle, not recently, from the looks of its hull. Carbonite surrounds the damaged areas. Energy weapons do not leave Carbonite residue. The damage was caused by explosives.
The search lights shine on an open shuttle bay door. Amber maneuvers her Marauder through the opening into the hangar. She lowers the landing gear, fires the braking thrusters and lands on the hangar deck. Magnetic pads hold the Marauder to the deck. She shuts down the engines.
With the hangar door wide open, there is no pressure inside it. The three of us change into spacesuits. Amber depressurizes the Marauder, then she opens the rear hatch and lowers the boarding ramp. I get a couple spare power cells from storage. Then we leave the Marauder and walk to the airlock. It is standing wide open. The entire ship is probably open to the vacuum of space.
The first place we head to is engineering. The drives, main reactor, and fuel cells are gone, but the auxiliary power plant might still be intact and there may still be power in the power cells. If we can restore power, we can close the airlocks, turn on the lights, and restore limited life support.
The door to engineering is closed and refuses to open. I remove a multitool from my belt and use it to remove the fasteners around the panel that covers the door actuator and controls. I connect leads to one of the power cells I am carrying and try the door controls again. It still refuses to open.
I disconnect the power leads. Then I open the panel below the door controls. Behind it is the emergency pump and pump handle. I remove the handle, and insert it in the pump. Then I pump the handle up and down. The lock jaws open and the door slowly slides open. There is no sense stowing the handle or reinstalling the panels. The ship is dead.
We enter engineering. The auxiliary power plant and reactor are still working, but the main breakers are open. I close the breakers. Lights come on, airlock doors close, and the ship begins pressurizing and warming up. We leave engineering and head forward to the bridge. When we get there, the blast doors are closed, but they open when I press the palm plate.
We cross the threshold into the bridge. Persephone says, “The pressure is sufficient to remove our helmets.” She and I are first to take our helmets off, then Amber follows our example. The air is cold but breathable. I go to the command chair to access the captain’s log entries. There are no entries. It isn’t that there weren’t any. There are plenty of log entries, probably dating back to the ship’s construction. It is that they are all blank. Someone took the time to erase every one of them. Persephone tries retrieving locations the ship visited from the navigation computer. Like the captain’s log entries, they have also been erased along with all of the star charts.
The three of us go to the captain's quarters next. It is a mess inside. Someone got here ahead of us and searched the room. Whoever did it, did not do a thorough job. Amber notices one of the floor vents is slightly misaligned. The diffuser cover comes off easily. Inside the ductwork is a single page from the ship's journal. The page is blank except for two words, Gamma Cetra, our next destination.
Our business is finished here. We don’t have what we came for, but we have a piece of information that may lead to more useful information. We leave the power on for whoever finds the remains of the ship, and go to the hangar airlock where the Marauder is waiting. We put our helmets on, and go through the airlock. The hangar is still depressurized and the door is open.
We board the Marauder, raise the rear ramp and close the hatch. As soon as the ship is pressurized, we remove our spacesuits and change back into our clothes. Amber goes forward to the cockpit. We sit behind her while she pilots the ship back to the Carpacia.
I thought Jewel would have had enough time to calm down while we were gone. I am wrong. If anything, she is angrier at having missed out on our adventure. I explain, “You didn’t miss anything. There was nothing to see, just empty corridors.”
“That’s not the point!” You didn’t bring me with you and Amber.”
At least it isn’t about Persephone. Since they became pregnant, their doing, they have been spending less and less time with me. There is a growing rift between us that has nothing to do with Persephone and me having to stay together. Both Amber and Jewel have accepted her as a part of the family. She comes with me as a package deal, just like Jewel comes with Amber. The jealousy they once had of her is gone. We are all close friends. Maybe that is it. Our relationship has changed from lovers to friends with benefits.
“Jewel advise the fleet we are moving on. Nugget set our course for Gamma Cetra.”
This is going to be a long jump of twenty-three and a half light-years. After we are in hyperspace, we leave the bridge to the AI and go to our cabins. It is too quiet. Jewel and Amber open the door to the nursery, our children are gone. Tammy says, “I was wondering how long it was going to take you to check on your children. Demeter came for them hours ago. She took them to the park.”
Persephone says, “They will love it there. I did. My mother used to bring me there when I was a little girl.” She is not talking about the central park aboard the Carpacia. She is talking about another place in another timeline. That means trouble, for us, not them. Demeter considers her taking out children to a different dimension where time flows differently as doing a favor for us. She doesn’t realize she is robbing us of the time we have to spend with them as children. The concept of time is different for gods and goddesses. They are for all practical purposes immortal, but they can be killed.
Demeter having our children doesn’t bother Jewel and Amber. When I ask, Amber says, “We trust her, she and Athena will take good care of our children.” Then they go into their room and close the door. Persephone and I go into the common area. I touch one of the Orbs of the Tsurani Suns. The orbs begin flashing with different colored lights in time to the music they are playing.
Persephone hands me the Carpacia’s leather-bound log book and a stylus, and says, “You are behind with your log entries. You have plenty of time to catch up with them now.” Then she lies on the couch to take a nap.
I’m further behind with entering my log entries than she thinks I am. Where should I begin, the day I decided to take the ship as salvage, or the day I officially took command as its captain? I lean back in my chair, close the log book and set it and the stylus down on the end table, and close my eyes while I think about which date I should use as my first entry.
Persephone wakes me and asks, “Are you finished?”
“Yes, I’m done.”
“Good. If you keep up with it daily, it won’t be as hard to keep up with your entries.” I stand, pick up the log book, take it into the galley, and put it into the recycle chute where it belongs. Out of sight, out of mind. I hope its pages don’t make the niffids sick.
The fleet comes out of hyperspace in the Gamma Cetra system. It is a large yellow sun with four planets orbiting it. The first three planets are too hot and sunbaked for life to exist on their surfaces. The outermost planet is barely inside the habitable zone. It’s terrain is a mix of rock and desert sand. Nugget alters our course to take us to the fourth planet.
Amber reports, “The sensors are detecting metallic objects in orbit that may be satellites.”
Jewel says, “If they are satellites, they aren’t broadcasting on any frequency that I can detect.”
Persephone increases the optical sensors to maximum magnification. We can see sunlight glinting on a band of objects orbiting the planet around the equator. They are too small to make out any detail. I order Nugget, “Enter geostationary orbit.” I don’t want to get any closer to the planet than forty thousand kilometers until I know more.
Nugget says to me, “It’s you, me or Doc that has to go down to the surface.”
“What about Jewel and Amber?”
Amber says, “With my red hair and fair skin, I’d burn to a crisp in less than a minute.”
Jewel says, “Amber and I are twins. I burn just like she does.” She may have been raised by Amber’s parents, but she is far from being her twin sister. She is an adopted child, but there is no arguing this point with her.
“Doc can’t go. His entire medical staff is busy with all the newborn children.”
“Then it is either you or me. I’ll flip you for it.” Nugget pulls an old coin from his pocket. It is a commemoration coin with Queen Cecelia’s bust on it. He says, If I flip the coin, and it lands tails up, I’ll go to the planet, but if it lands heads up with the bust side up, you go.”
“Fair enough, go ahead and flip the coin.” There is no way he can cheat. Nugget flips the coin, high into the air. It spins end over end, lands on the floor, and rolls to a stop bust side up. Persephone and I am going.
Nugget says, “Be sure to bring plenty of sunblock two thousand with you. There isn’t a lot of shade down there.” He picks up the coin, admires both sides, one side has Queen Cecilia on it, the other is his bust. Both look alike in their neutral forms. The only way to see the difference is by reading the Keshian lettering above their profiles. He chuckles and puts it in his pocket. “It gets them every time.”
Before going to the shuttle bay, Persephone and I go down to our cabin. She goes into our bedroom, then into the closet to rummage around in her belongings. Since moving in, she has taken over the closet, filling it three quarters full with her clothing. She comes out carrying an umbrella. I say, “What do you need an umbrella for? It isn’t going to rain.”
“It isn’t an umbrella it is a parasol.” I shrug, it looks like an umbrella to me. We take the transport car to the shuttle bay stop. We get out and enter the hangar. I am still afraid of the capabilities of the Medusa assault shuttle. Instead of taking it, I choose one of the cargo shuttlecraft that are sitting on the ready line.
After leaving the Carpacia, I accelerate towards the planet, then fire the attitude thrusters to lower our orbit. We fly past the metallic objects. They are the remains of the aft section of the Excelsior. There was a battle here long ago and the Excelsior lost. Why was the forward half of the ship towed to the Iota Eridani system instead of salvaging it for scrap and parts? Maybe, the answer lies below us on the planet.
Persephone uses the sensors to scan the planet while we are decelerating and preparing for reentry. The shuttlecraft’s sensors are nowhere near as good as the sensors aboard the Marauders, but they are better than nothing. She says, “The sensors are detecting an area with a high concentration of iron. We should land there and investigate.”
“It is probably a natural deposit of iron ore,” I say.
“No, it isn’t. There is more metal here than everyplace I’ve scanned put together.” She puts the coordinates in the navigation computer. I calculate our reentry window. To make it, I am going to have to decelerate hard. I turn the shuttlecraft away from the planet, and fire the main engines and keep them burning until we are in low orbit. Then I turn the ship in the direction of flight for reentry. Then I increase the pitch to nose up fifty-five degrees for aerobraking.
The shuttlecraft’s nose and wing leading edges glow red almost immediately. The ship dips down deeper into the atmosphere. The glow turns to flames and the friction from the atmosphere makes a loud growling sound—not a good sign. I increase power to our forward shields, and begin a series of turns to slow our speed.
The shuttlecraft shakes and shudders, and the flames vanish. I push the controls forward to change our pitch to four degrees nose down. Then I turn onto a heading that will take us to the coordinates Persephone entered in the navigation computer.
Ahead of us, I see what looks like cargo containers half buried in the sand. I start the repulsor-lift engines, lower the landing struts, and fire the braking thrusters. At first, the landing skids slide across the loose desert sand. When the shuttlecraft slows, they dig in and bring us to a rapid stop.
I shut down the engines, unfasten my seat harness, then go aft to the passenger hatch. I equalize the pressure, then open the hatch. The glare from the sun reflecting from the white quartz sand is blinding. I shut the hatch, and get two pairs of darkened goggles, put one on, and hand the other pair to Persephone. Then I open the hatch again.
I lower the boarding steps and step down onto the hot desert sand. Persephone steps down beside me and opens her parasol. We walk across the hot sand, sinking ankle deep with every step, on the way to the cargo containers. They form a circle around one in the center. They were placed here to provide shelter for the people that were marooned here. The air is hot and dry and there is no source of food or water anywhere near here. Whoever was left here, was left here to die, and they didn’t live long. The entrances to the containers are open, sand partially fills them, but enough of the furniture and mummified remains are above the sand to recognize that they are human.
There is nothing of value that we can find in any of the surrounding containers. Persephone and I go to the last container, the one in the center. Like the others, it is open to the elements. Inside it is a single mummified man, sitting at a table with a memory crystal firmly grasped in his right hand. The way he is seated facing the open door, he wanted whoever came searching for them to find the crystal.
I try to gently pull it from his grasp. It doesn’t budge. I wiggle it and pull a little harder. The fingers crack and break off of the hand, releasing the memory crystal, and fall to the desert sand. I put the crystal in my pocket for safe keeping. Then we head back to the shuttle.
Halfway back, my cybernetic systems warn me, radiation burns to exposed skin—seek shelter, and fluid reserves are low—seek hydration. I say, “I think I am in trouble.”
“The next time we go to a desert world, bring an umbrella.”
I make it back to the shuttlecraft. By the time we get there my skin is burnt, blistered, and cracked. So is my synthetic skin. Nanites are released to repair the damage, but I am in no condition to fly the shuttlecraft back to the Carpacia. Persephone holds a bottle of water while I drink from it through cracked lips. When I finish it, she gets me another and makes me drink that one too.
She says, “While you are healing, I will fly us back to the ship.”
I argue, “You have never piloted a shuttlecraft, we can wait until I am healed.”
“I’ve flown the Carpacia, I’ve seen you do it, and I have your memories. I’ll figure it out.”
“Doing it and seeing it done are two different things. I’ll finish healing in a few hours.”
“I’m not staying here another minute. If you don’t want to come with me, you can get out. I’ll send Nugget to get you.” It’s an empty threat, she can’t leave without me, but she is serious about leaving now. She goes forward to the cockpit and starts the engines, while I sit on an acceleration couch and hope she flies the shuttlecraft better than Jewel and Amber. If not, it is going to be a rough ride.
When we step on the bridge, Nugget sees us, laughs at me, and says, “What happened, did sleeping beauty use all of the sunscreen?”
Persephone opens her parasol, holds it above her left shoulder, and says, “He didn’t think of bringing a parasol.”
“Why would he need an umbrella? It doesn’t rain on that planet.”
“For one, there isn’t any shade unless you bring it. If that isn’t a good enough reason look at him.”
Persephone doesn’t even have a hint of a sunburn. I can’t say that about myself. My nanites have done a lot to repair the damage during the shuttle flight back to the Carpacia, but they are still far from finished with their repairs. My skin is bright red, cracked, blistered, and peeling every place that was exposed to the sun. Persephone is right, I should have brought an umbrella. “I’m going below until I finish healing,” I say to Nugget.
Persephone and I take the elevator down to our cabin. I get my comp, remove the memory crystal and try inserting it into the socket. It doesn’t fit. Mike may be able to adapt something that might work, but I can’t take a chance with this crystal. As old as it is, we may only have one chance at extracting the information. Going back to the Excelsior to use its computers to extract the information will take valuable time I can’t afford to lose if there is another way.
I say to Persephone, “One of us is going to have to go into the crystal.” That means her. It’s not that I can’t do it. It is that I might screw up and get trapped inside it. I know that she doesn’t like entering objects that hold memories like walls, doors, rock formations—especially quartz, but she does it all the time with the memory crystals for the starliner’s computers.
“Don’t even think for a second that I am going in there alone. It is a strange crystal. There is no telling what horrors it might hold.”
“What about doing it together?”
She takes the crystal from me and lays it on the table. Then she holds my hand, places her left hand over the crystal, draws power into herself and sends it and us into the crystal.
There are only fragments of two files in the memory crystal. The others are corrupted beyond use. One is an image. I stare at it until it comes into focus. I have seen it before, several times. It is the flaming red skull that belongs to the Crimson Tide. I thought they were a pirate organization that formed in the Andromeda galaxy. I am wrong. They got their start here and followed our ancestors, protecting them from attack by the Alliance. They were mercenaries hired to protect our ancestors. The Excelsior was an Alliance ship. It fought in a battle against the Crimson Tide in this star system, lost, and was captured. The survivors were marooned here before the Crimson Tide departed with the Alliance warship.
This new information goes against what I know about the Crimson Tide, but I know it is true. How could a fragmented image convey so much information? How could it have such an impact on us? It is almost like we were a part of the memory.
The second file is a fragment of a star map. The name Antares is next to the star on the center of the map. It is not the Antares in the Andromeda galaxy. It is the star it was named after. Unlike the last file, there are no memories associated with the computer file that are not my own. Persephone and I return to our cabin.
We use the comp in our cabin to search through the millions of stars she has cataloged in the star charts. Antares isn’t among them. We have the partial star map from the memory crystal. Persephone uses it, for reference, to find a match for the stars surrounding Antares. She searches through tens of millions of combinations before finding a match. Then she uses the stars to triangulate Antares’ position on our star charts.
I use the comm to call up to the bridge. “Nugget, inform the fleet, we are going to Antares.” I give him the star system’s location.