Annihilation - Tommy's Tale (Annihilation Series (Book Four)) (7 page)

“Yes, I did.”

“And?”

“You really surprised me, Tommy. You put your personal feelings aside to do the right thing. I thought you didn’t put any weight in this title you were given.”

“I know, but when the moment came, I couldn’t go through with exacting retribution. I don’t want the responsibility but I can’t help myself from acting responsibly. What a mess.”

There was a long pause and then Atlas thought to him, “Tommy, why have you chosen to take on my fight to free my brother ships?”

“I was listening in on your conversation with Rose and my parents after the final battle with the Algeans ended and you told her how alone you were. I remember you saying, “Alone, so alone, so totally alone.” Atlas, I not only heard you; I felt what you were feeling. I was just a child but I decided at that moment that no one should endure that loneliness. Now I have a question for you.”

“Go ahead, Tommy.”

“Why have you never shared any information with me about their captors and have forbidden Rose and I from looking at their galaxy?”

Minutes passed and finally Tommy said, “Atlas, are you still there?”

“Yes, I am. Tommy, the race of captors scare me more than you’ll ever know. I barely escaped capture by them.”

“Tell me what happened.”

“I was fleeing them at my fastest speed and jumping every second to random coordinates but they were able to stay right behind me and were actually gaining. I was saved by the asteroid that impacted you planet sixty five million years ago.”

“How?”

I jumped into your system at the moment it struck the planet. I was able to stop next to your moon and drop to its surface just as the captor’s ship broke into the system behind me. I burned a hole into the crater wall and moved inside the cave I created. I turned off all my power and hoped they would not see me.”

“Well, you’re here today,” Tommy said. “They must have thought the explosion on the surface of the planet was you hitting it instead of the asteroid.”

“That is exactly what happened, Tommy.”

“Did your race ever communicate with them?”

“Yes, initially they seemed harmless enough.”

“What changed that?”

“One of my brothers stumbled into their home system. Seven hundred thousand ships exploded from their planet’s surface and began destroying us. They searched for us and seemed to know where ever we were and killed us whenever they found us. After a hundred years they began capturing us and holding us prisoner.” Atlas paused for a moment and then continued, “Tommy, my race is more than a hundred and fifty million years old. The race that attacked us is more than double our age. We were no match for their technology.”

“Atlas you have got to let go of your fear. I can’t help you in the dark. You have to share what you know.”

“I’m afraid that they will know if a picture of them is shown anywhere in the universe.”

Tommy thought for a moment and then said, “Ok, I’ll respect your fear. So here is what we have to do; we have to find a way to fly faster than they can. According to your description, they did not catch you immediately but chased you for a long time and slowly gained ground on you, correct?”

“Yes.”

“Then what we have to develop first is a faster means of propulsion. Once we can double your speed then we’ll go off to a galaxy far from the Realm and you can show me what you know. But first let’s invent the means to escape.”

“Escape it is. Maybe our Algean friends might be able to help us.”

Tommy smiled and said, “I’ll talk with them after they finish breakfast.”

Atlas laughed and thought, “You better have lunch ready quickly.”

“I know, I know. I’ll talk with you later, Atlas.”

“Later.”

Tommy entered the ships library and found the two Algeans devouring the contents of the computer system. Tommy said, “I have ordered all of Castle Gardners library loaded into two readers and we will stop there in twelve hours to set them up in this room. How much longer before you finish what we have here?”

Sprig said, “Five hours, Sir. We should be fine for ten hours after that while we digest and organize what we’ve consumed.”

Tommy looked hard at the Algean and said, “Are you sure!”

Twig said, “Well, maybe you might want to hurry the readers.”

Tommy said, “I thought so. I’ll move our arrival up six hours.”

Sprig said, “That would be good.”

Tommy smiled and said, “If you need to leave this room, notify me.”

They both said, “Yes sir.”

Two weeks later two very satisfied adolescents were allowed to start moving thru the ship without an escort. They had downloaded the entire libraries of Earth, Cainth, Glod, and Sten’s world. The pain from their storage was not as severe and they were able to act somewhat responsibly. “Sprig’s Run” taught the ship that one can never be too careful with an Algean Adolescent.

The event started as Tommy stepped out of his quarters on that day to go to the mess hall for lunch when he saw Sprig come through the door at the end of the corridor moving at a fast speed. As the young Algean came even with him Tommy said, “Hey, where are you going in such a hurry?”

Sprig stopped and started to say something when the ship’s communication system came on with Wes McAnn yelling, “Where are you, you overgrown pile of kudzu. I’m going to rip you into a million pieces.”

Sprig looked at Tommy and said, “Welllll, I kinda messed up the toilet facilities up on third deck. I wanted to see how it worked and I think I accidently reversed and increased the water pressure. I was going to go back and repair it, I promise.”

Suddenly Tommy heard Twig send a thought to Sprig, “Beat it, he’s coming your way.”

Sprig looked at Tommy and said, “Uh oh, gotta go.” Sprig turned and sped down to the end of the corridor and made a hard left turn faster than Tommy had ever seen him move.

Tommy then saw at the other end of the hall the door slam open and Wes come thru moving fast towards him. Wes was soaked from head to toe and was dripping water all the way down the hall. As he came closer Tommy saw a big red mark on Wes’s forehead, “I’ll throw that weed into the reactor if I can get my hands on him,” Wes yelled.

“Whoa, slow down, Wes,” Tommy said, “What happened?”

“That sack of green groad booby trapped the toilet; the damn thing blew up when I flushed it and nearly shot me through the wall.”

Tommy looked at his best friend and though he tried to keep a straight face he just couldn’t control himself and started laughing. Wes looked at him and said, “It’s not funny!”

Captain Dodd turned the corner from the direction that Sprig had just disappeared and was walking their way with a stern look on her face. Wes thought, “Oh crap.”

“Mr. McAnn, our general communication channel is not for the type of language you’ve just been using,” she said. “What exactly is going on?”

“That damn weed booby trapped the toilet on deck three!”

Captain Dodd looked at Wes and noticed that Wes was soaked from head to toe, possessed a rather pungent smell, and had a bright red mark on his forehead. She then noticed Tommy leaning against the wall holding his ribs trying to contain his laughter and though she tried mightily to keep her face stern, she started smiling.

Wes looked at the two of them and said, “It’s not funny. Half of the ceiling is covered in what was in that toilet.”

With that Tommy fell to the floor laughing uncontrollably and Captain Dodd lost it completely. Wes stood there fuming. Finally Captain Dodd said, “Mr. McAnn, go to your quarters and clean up and we’ll discuss this later.”

Wes looked at the two of them and then turned and stormed back up the hall toward his room. He slammed the door at the end of the hall. Sprig stuck his head out from the other end of the hall and said, “I had no idea the system had that much pressure.”

With that both Tommy and Captain Dodd were unable to breathe through their laughter.

Twenty minutes later after a cleanup detail had been sent to clean up the mess, Captain Dodd returned to the bridge to find the entire bridge crew trying to look normal; they had been following the chase on the ship’s monitors. They all returned to their seats and fought hard to maintain a straight face. Captain Dodd looked at them with the sternest face she could manage and then said, “Lt. Ortiz, please make an announcement that the wash room on deck three is out of order.”

The crew couldn’t help it, everyone doubled over laughing and even Dodd joined in. Wes’ new nickname from that day forward was “3D” which was short hand for “Deck 3”.

W
es finally came to terms with Sprig after Captain Dodd made both of them sit down and discuss what happened. Sprig apologized profusely and said he was leaving to get the tools to make a repair when it happened. Eventually Wes understood that education is not a well planned adventure and that accidents can happen. Sprig for his part felt awful for Wes and from that day forward swore he would make it up to him. Wes left the meeting feeling better but knew that the nickname was his no matter what. He decided 3D was better than red spot.

Tommy would leave the ship occasionally to work with Atlas but they were making no progress at developing a faster form of propulsion. Atlas was at the pinnacle of his race’s technology and the Stars Realm was millions of years behind anything close to Atlas. They kept hitting walls in coming up with anything that would start to work. After eight months of effort, Tommy went back to Dorg-Ross no closer to a solution.

The two adolescents had made remarkable progress in their education. Only two hours a day was used in downloading new information and ten hours for processing all they had learned. Tommy had an idea and asked Sprig and Twig to meet him in the conference room with Captain Dodd. He decided that he needed help and that maybe the Adolescents could use their enormous storage of knowledge to help turn him in the right direction. Unfortunately, he was going to have to tell Captain Dodd what he intended because some experiments could be dangerous to her ship.

The four of them sat in the conference room and Captain Dodd still had her stern demeanor that seemed to never change when she was around Tommy. Tommy looked at the three and said, “What we are about to discuss falls under the category of “Safety of The State” and will not leave this room.” Captain Dodd sat up straighter in her chair and wondered what was going on. Tommy looked at Captain Dodd and said, “The adolescents know part of this but they know that what I’m about to tell you can never be revealed. However, I’m at a point where I am going to have to explore avenues that I would not ordinarily explore.”

Twig thought to Tommy where Captain Dodd could hear, “Are you sure you want to discuss this?”

Dodd looked at the Algean and knew that something big was about to happen. Tommy said, “I may not like the Captain, but I admire and trust her professionalism. I have observed her since we’ve been on the ship and I am of the opinion that she can be trusted with the knowledge. If she does not agree to take part, we will go to another ship.” Twig leaned from side to side showing her agreement.

Sprig said, “I do not think you can find a better ship than this one.”

Tommy looked at Captain Dodd and answered, “I agree, but I suspect that what I’m going to ask of you will involve a high degree of danger. This is a decision she will have to make on her own.”

Captain Dodd said, “What decision are you talking about?”

Tommy stood up and walked to the monitor on the wall and said, “Atlas, have you listened on everything said so far?”

The speaker on the monitor said, “I have but I’m not certain what you’re trying to do’”

Captain Dodd furrowed her brow and Tommy said, “I want you to take part in this discussion and we’ll see where it goes.”

Atlas said, “Please continue.”

Tommy looked Dodd and said, “Captain, Atlas is an Alfont.”

Cassie was stunned. She couldn’t find the words to say anything.

“Atlas was found by my father on Earth’s moon when he was trying to escape the directorate. He is an intelligent star ship and millions of years ago his race transferred their physical structure into the structure of their ship. Every member of the Royal Family as well as the leadership of the Algeans knows Atlas. No one else knows of his existence. Sprig and Twig are scheduled to complete their education with Atlas after their initial learning on this ship.”

The monitor on the wall said, “I’m pleased to make your acquaintance, Captain Dodd.”

Cassandra stammered out, “Thank you, uh, Atlas. It’s nice to meet you, too.”

Tommy said, “There’s more Captain Dodd. Atlas has a million of his fellow Alfonts being held captive by a race in a galaxy a long way from us. They have been captive for more than sixty million years and the captors are as far ahead of Atlas’ technologically as he is from us. Atlas will not even reveal what he knows about them out of fear that they will sense that revelation and attack. It is my chosen path to free his brothers from their captivity during my lifetime. Atlas and I have run into a knowledge barrier that has stopped us from finding the means of making it happen. How am I doing so far, Atlas?”