Across The Universe With A Giant Housecat (The Blue) (16 page)

We found more computer consoles in adjoining rooms. Hundreds of them, even. I was going to suggest to Maura that we check if any of these were still in working order, but she spoke first.

“Look!” she announced, pointing.
 

Looking, I saw that the rune for
ship
, one that I could now recognize on sight, was emblazoned across one of the doorways. We headed for it in unison.

Through the doorway was yet another room. Maura entered it first and gasped.

We had found spaceships.

Chapter 24

I stood for a few moments, not wanting to believe it, my body trembling. I had just barely allowed myself to hope for this, and there had always been more than a shred of doubt that we would find anything…

But here it was. An underground hangar filled with genuine alien spaceships.

I approached the nearest one. The ship looked more like a giant insect than any spaceship I had seen. It was as black and shiny as the obelisks, with green etchings and runes across the sides of the hull. It was larger than the
Dragontooth
, but not as large as the
Indomitable
, by far.

This could be our salvation—the way home.

Tentatively, I touched the smooth surface as Maura also ran her hands along it. It was cold to the touch, as I had expected for something that had been sitting in an underground bunker for centuries.

“I think I found the hatch,” said Maura as something near her clicked and a part of the hull slid away to the side to reveal the interior.

We climbed inside.

The inside was as alien as the outside. Everything was obelisk-black, and the control console was covered from end to end with alien writing. I lost no time getting the computer to translate.

Maura explored the ship further.

“It’s spacious,” she called back to me. “They’ve used the space well. There are several sleeping cabins. No galley. I guess the aliens mostly lived on fruit and didn’t cook much.”

The computer completed the translations. The runes on the control console served the purpose of pointing out the different functions. Good. Everything was clearly labeled, though in alien. That would make learning to fly this thing a little easier. I busied myself trying to memorize the main ones I would need to pilot the ship.

“I’m going to find out if there is a way to fly this thing out of here,” Maura announced, heading for the hatch.

“Good. Thanks.” What a very levelheaded thing to do. I was so glad I had brought her along.

Leo had curled up at my feet and fallen asleep.

Several minutes passed as I tried to commit to memory, using the computer’s translations, which controls did what.

Leo started snoring.

As I began quizzing myself on the alien runes for about the fiftieth time, I was interrupted by the noise of a crash. A moment later, the cave ceiling above us began to slide back, revealing daylight.

Maura had found our exit!

The ceiling continued to slide back like an automated bay door back home, the additional light welcome. Leo woke up and yowled in protest at the light.
 

I could see Maura standing at the far end of the hangar, a wide smile on her face.

I couldn’t keep the smile from my face, either. We had found ships!

I stuck my head out of the open hatch and called to Maura. “I’m going to try to fly this thing! Want to come aboard?”

Nodding, she hurried back over and climbed aboard.

“Samantha’s computer just translated all the runes on this control console. I’m reasonably sure I know which ones to use for flying.” I paused, considering. “Though if you aren’t comfortable being along for the maiden voyage, you don’t have to be.”

“I’m comfortable,” said Maura with her usual calm. Shutting the hatch, she sat down next to me. “Hand me Samantha’s computer. I can read the translations to you if you forget.”

I handed it to her and we both strapped ourselves in.

I pressed the button to start the engine and held my breath, waiting for the engine to purr to life.

If the engine didn’t work, we would have gotten our hopes up for nothing.

The console glowed brightly, indicating that something was working, at least. Maura pointed to it with a little cry of joy.

But there was no engine purr. None at all. We sat in silence, disappointment heavy in the cockpit.

“Maybe give it a few minutes,” suggested Maura. “Maybe it needs to warm up. Or charge. Or something.”

Leo sat up suddenly.

“Nothing to see here, boy,” I reassured him. “The ship isn’t working.” I unbuckled myself and sat back in the seat.

Maura rose to her feet. “Want to check the others?”

I nodded heavily, getting to my feet and heading for the hatch.

Leo, who hadn’t shown the slightest interest in anything in this cave before, bounded into my seat the moment I got up, letting out another insistent yowl.

I looked expectantly at him.

He shook his head and squinted his eyes at me.

“What is he doing?” asked Maura.

“I haven’t the foggiest. He does a lot of strange things. Come on; let’s check out one of the other ships.”

With an even louder yowl, Leo extended one paw forward towards the controls. Before I could stop him, he gave one of the instruments a hard slap.

The ship shot up like a rocket, out of the cave through the opening and into the sky.

“The ship!” cried Maura as she and I were flung to the floor. “It works! The engines run silent, even inside an atmosphere!”

“What did you do?” I asked Leo, scrambling for the controls. “How did you know?” Grabbing the controls, I hauled myself up into one of the seats.

We had risen up out of the ground among rocks, the broken obelisk in the near distance. From the air, I could finally tell what the smooth surface next to it was supposed to be: a landing pad.

The ship remained in the air, hovering. Maura climbed into a seat next to me, strapping herself in.

Leo looked very satisfied with himself.

“Maybe he could hear the engine,” suggested Maura. “Maybe he hears in a different range than we do.”

“You never are going to let on exactly how much you know, are you?” I asked the smug-looking kvyat.

I was overjoyed. The ship was still in running order. We had an escape from Coriolanus!

In the far distance was the oasis, where Samantha and the others waited. She must be getting impatient by now; she hadn’t heard from me via the wrist communicator in a long time. I pointed the nose of the ship towards the oasis and opened the throttle wide.

Chapter 25

“Are you ready?” asked Samantha, her eyes shining with hope and happiness.

“I think so,” I answered, looking around and wiping the sweat from my forehead.
 

The alien ship, which we had christened the
Freedom
, sat proudly in the center of the oasis village. We had finished stocking the ship with as much drinking water and food—dried and some fresh—as it could hold. I was sure we had packed enough to last us for three months. Far more than we should need, but I wanted to be prepared if anything were to happen to us in space.

I had taken the ship on several test flights inside the planet’s atmosphere. She handled beautifully. At the first opportunity, I had labeled the controls with English words, because remembering all the alien runes had proved harder than I had expected.

Leo, as if to make up for his earlier brilliance, had spent the last three hours hissing and growling at a neon yellow butterfly that had been fluttering around him.

Now, at last, it was time to leave.

I looked around at the ten alien faces before me, and beyond them to the oasis around us. For the most part, my time here had been a sojourn in paradise. Long days relaxing in the hot spring, nights spent gorging myself on luscious fruits and sleeping in the cool air, the friendship of the kind aliens… it had been wonderful. But I would have to content myself with memories, because it was dangerous to remain here.

Having said her good-byes to the aliens, Samantha climbed aboard, strapping herself into one of the seats. Leo took up position next to her.

I lingered by the hatch, staring at the aliens, trying to find the right words. But before I could speak, Maura spoke first.

“Alan, we’ve got something to tell you. We’ve made a decision.”

“We’re going with you,” said Genesis firmly.

“But we don’t know how leaving the planet will affect you,” said Samantha from inside the ship. “You could die.”

“Or we could be just fine,” said Jennifer. “It’s a risk we are all willing to take.”

“But why? You have a life here. You’re perfectly healthy and you live in a paradise!” I exclaimed. “This has been your home for fifty years.”

“We lived here in blissful ignorance, yes,” agreed Genesis. “But we could have families that we don’t know about back home. Maybe some of our friends could still be alive, too.”

“I was young when the mission began. My wife had just found out she was pregnant with our first child,” said Bruce. “She could still be alive. And I want a chance to meet my child.”

“I could have grandchildren I don’t know about,” said Eleanor.

“If we stay here, what is left for us? Two hundred more years of making pottery while this place erases our memories? That is no life.”

“You were happy with it before,” I remarked.

“We didn’t know any better before,” said Eleanor. “We want to go with you. We all do. No matter what the risk.”

“All of you?” I looked around at the ten faces before me. They all nodded, resolute.

“All right, then. It’s your decision to make, and I won’t stop you. Have you all packed your things?”

“We each brought a few mementos from this place, if that’s what you mean,” said Genesis. “And we’ve got an additional stockpile of nuts, dried fruit, and water. for the journey.”

“All right, then. Welcome aboard.”

The aliens, each armed with several sacks, boarded the
Freedom
. Reaching for the controls, I started up the silent engines. The lights on the console sprang to life. Everything looked good. It was time to go.

“Is everyone strapped in?” I asked, and received for an answer a murmur of assents.

“Good.” Grasping the controls, I began to raise the ship.

The ship responded well to the controls, sliding up towards the upper atmosphere. Realizing I was holding my breath, I tried to breathe, my heart pounding.

This had to work. It was our only chance.

The ship moved higher in the atmosphere, the only sound around us the air whistling as it moved past the ship. Everyone else was silent, probably as nervous as I was.

Everything on the instruments read normal.

We were in a thick cloud layer with only the instruments to guide me. I angled the ship up further.

Then, abruptly, the clouds fell away and we were in the blackness of space, Coriolanus below us.

I heard several sighs of relief behind me.

We were safe.

#

The journey continued for some hours without incident. The aliens were rapt with fascination, staring out at the star-studded cosmos. Maura in particular asked endless questions, which I tried to answer, Samantha helping.

As soon as I could, I used the ship’s comm. system to broadcast a message through hyperspace. I warned ships to stay away from the planet Coriolanus, and announced that my ship was carrying survivors from the
Indomitable’s
mission.
 

The alien ship had an autopilot, which I set for Iron Horn Base.
 

After a few hours, the novelty of space travel had worn off for the aliens. I noticed a few of them yawning.

“You should get some sleep,” I suggested. “It’s night time for your internal clocks. You aren’t used to it yet, but space looks the same whether it is day or night.”

“Good idea,” said Maura.

“What about you?” asked Jennifer. “Aren’t you sleepy, too?”

“I’ll be all right,” I said. “And I’ve got the ship on autopilot, which means I could fall asleep right now and we won’t drift off course.”

#

Something was buzzing somewhere.

Buzz
,
buzz
. Why wouldn’t it stop?

I opened my eyes and realized I had been dozing in the pilot’s chair. More importantly, I saw that another ship was hailing us. I could see the ship off our port side, but she was too far away for me to identify her markings.

“Y—yes?” I sat up quickly, answering the hail. “Yes? Who is there?”

“Unidentified craft, this is the Stellar Intrepid Ship
Siren Song
. Please announce yourself.”

I broke into a grin so wide it made my face hurt. “With pleasure. This is Alan Michael Wolf of the ship
Indomitable
. If you are our rescue ship, come alongside. We’ve got a lot to talk about.”

#

Our story must have seemed beyond incredible, but the captain of the rescue ship, a bald man in his forties, did an excellent job of listening with a serious face. Samantha and I met him first, then after we had told our story, informed him that there were ten alien-looking humans waiting aboard the
Freedom
.

Neither Samantha or I needed much time in the medical bays. The medics deemed us both incredibly healthy, even more so than when we had started the journey. The doctors informed Samantha that she was pregnant with twins, which caused her to cry with joy. Both babies were growing nicely and had remained fully human, despite our exposure to the alien obelisk. I could tell Samantha was relieved to hear that.

We transferred the aliens over to the rescue ship so that the doctors onboard could monitor them more closely. I was still worried that they could die, but the doctors deemed them perfectly healthy. I hoped the effects of the obelisk on their health would stay with them for years to come.

Before we set off for Iron Horn Base, the captain of the
Siren Song
placed markers in hyperspace to warn the other ships of the dangers of getting too close to Coriolanus.

Samantha, Leo, and I were tasked with piloting the alien ship, the rescue ship our escort. Or, more accurately, I did the piloting. Samantha, being a laboratory scientist, had little experience behind the controls of a spaceship. She kept watch over Leo and made sure we all had regular meals and sleep. I had forgotten how easy it was to lose track of those things in the unchanging blackness of space.