Aurora Saga 2 Immortality for Life (6 page)

‘No, but they shouldn’t be too hard to find. I’ve scanned the surrounding space. Their ship’s drives are not very efficient, which means they’re leaving an ion-trail so bright we’d be able to follow them if we were two weeks behind them.’

Zoren studied the monitor. ‘But I can’t see any ion-trail.’

‘You can’t see it with the naked eye, but it’s there. I’ll show you an ion scan of the surrounding space.’

The monitor image brightened, becoming almost white. Zoren could now see a bright yellow mist, which was slowly moving, as if it was caressed by a light breeze. It led clearly away into the distance.

The
Aurora
turned and gracefully accelerated along the path of the ion-trail.

‘The
Aurora’s
a lot faster than the mercenary ship, so we should catch them up in four-point-three hours, based upon the ion-trail displacement,’ Kalrea said.

Zoren studied the image on the monitor, and then commented, ‘I notice the
Aurora
isn’t leaving an ion-trail.’

‘That’s because it doesn’t use ion-drives. Instead, it’s powered by a pair of event horizon drives.’

Zoren looked perplexed and said, ‘Event horizon is the edge of a black hole, right? So have you just used it as a fancy name, or do you really mean that black holes have something to do with how the
Aurora
is propelled?’

‘It not a fancy name. Qinants have developed ways to create and control a black hole.’

‘I’m impressed. So how does it work? And please try not to bamboozle me with scientific jargon from your planet.’

‘Ok, then I’ll keep it simple. Plasma from one of three reactors onboard is directed at vast speed into the drive chamber through millions of profiled jets in its cylindrical wall. This makes the plasma spiral towards the centre of the chamber, where, due to the sheer volume of plasma, it is placed under immense pressure. This results in the creation of a small black hole within the chamber. The black hole then sucks space in through intakes in the front of the ship and expels it from the rear along with the plasma, thus propelling the ship along.’

‘But, what stops the rest of the ship and us from being sucked into the black hole?’

‘The constant feed of plasma keeps the black hole stable; however, interrupt the plasma flow and the black hole will safely collapse.’

‘So the large cones I saw in the back of the ship, when I was on the Polnozoo, were the rear of the drives? But you said it was powered by a pair of drives, I remember seeing four cones.’

‘Yes, the ship was designed to have spare systems, so there are two pairs of drives, one inner and outer, in case one set failed. I no longer use the outer pair of drives, they were converted into weapons.’

Zoren nodded and the said, ‘Those weapons could be useful when we catch up with the mercenary ship.’

‘Let’s locate it first!’ Kalrea replied, sounding dismissive of his comment.

I hope she has a plan when we find them,
he thought.

Zoren was feeling very nervous about Kalrea, so he decided to try to find out more about her.

‘Kal-
rea
… Er… That is how you pronounce Kalrea, isn’t it?’

‘That’s close enough, Zoren,’ she replied.

‘Kalrea, I hope you don’t mind me asking you, but who created you? I mean… I assume you were created.’

Kalrea replied. ‘I’m not from this galaxy. I’m actually from one, which is billions of light years away. I was created by a race known as Qinants, who live on a planet called Qintaino. I was made conscious about one thousand, six hundred years ago.’

‘I’m only eighteen! So how old are you then?’

‘Well, if you have to put a measure on my existence, then I’m one thousand, six hundred and four years old.’

‘Wow! You must have seen many things in your lifetime. Why were you in the Polnozoo? It looks like you could have left any time you wanted.’

‘That’s true, but why would I want to leave? After all, it’s an interesting place. Where could you possibly go to see all the creatures that the Polnozoo had together in one place? Anyway, where would I go? What would I do?’

‘Don’t you feel the need to explore the galaxy? If I was you, I would have-’

Zoren stopped abruptly as the bridge door opened. He was totally amazed when out marched a tall young girl who looked no older than him.

Wow! Look at her!

‘Is that you Kalrea, I mean really you? You look… You look real! I mean, I was expecting some kind of a machine.’

Zoren got up and circled Kalrea, eying her up and down, as if he was checking out a component he had made for the shuttle. She was wearing a very tight-fitting black uniform, which had green sleeves with raised vertical ribbing.

Kalrea now spoke from the drone. ‘I modelled my body on a Qinant girl, called Londuo, who travelled in a similar ship to this. I have data patterns of her body to reference.’

‘What’s that on your head?’ Zoren said, pointing to her long brunette hair. He inspected closer to Kalrea’s eyes, before adding, ‘And above your eyes.’

Kalrea’s drone smiled. ‘That’s called hair. Sixty-eight percent of races have hair; some races even have their whole bodies covered in it.’

Strange!

‘And what about that picture on your face, do they all have those as well?’ Zoren asked, pointing to a brightly coloured tattoo of a bird-like claw on her left cheek.

‘It’s called a symoi. It’s the image of an Oilop claw,’ Kalrea replied.

‘Ah…’ Zoren replied, and thought,
no idea what that is.

‘An Oilop is a kind of bird. A lot of races decorate their bodies with a variety of images, which Qinants call symois, Humans tattoos and Gullins hipils.’

Zoren ran his hand over his head feeling the raised bone that ran down the back of his head. ‘You don’t have a dolha then?’

‘No, Zoren, that’s unique to your race,’ she replied cheerfully. ‘Once you’ve seen a few different races, I think you’ll understand how varied we all are.’

I’m not sure I’m really looking forward to that,
he thought and then asked,

‘How many of these drones do you have?’

‘There are five, all clones of this body-’

Zoren interrupted. ‘So you can have five of you walking around?’

‘No, only the one. I made the others at the same time. Originally there were ten of them, but five were not perfect, so those were destroyed. The remaining four are in storage and I can use them if this one is damaged.’

‘Is this drone like me? Does it have a brain? Does it have two hearts?’

Kalrea glared at him. ‘Woe! Slow down with all these questions. Every organ of a Qinant body has been replicated. The drone’s brain contains a part of my downloaded consciousness. I try to keep connected to the drone, but if required it can function on its own for short periods of time.’

‘So if it’s connected to you, then does it have your soul?’

‘My soul is here on the
Aurora
, inside me, but I suppose, yes, it possesses a part of my soul.’

‘Why doesn’t it just run off then?’

‘Remember it’s part of me, like one of your arms or legs. Cut one off and it would survive for a while, but if it wasn’t reattached, then it would die.’

‘That’s some comparison,’ Zoren replied feeling slightly uneasy by Kalrea’s analogy. ‘I think I’ll keep my arms and legs, thank you!’

Kalrea continued, ‘The drone does have a heart. Here, have a feel.’ She took Zoren’s hand and placed it against her chest.

‘That’s spooky. It’s beating!’

‘Of course it’s beating, what else would it do? It performs the same function as your two hearts.’

‘Do you bleed?’

I just said you! I’m forgetting it’s a drone already, but she looks so Agonian. The way she behaves, her mannerisms.

‘Yes I bleed, but not in the same way as you. The liquid pumped by my heart is used to provide power to the rest of my body. The heart contains a micro reactor.’

‘Can you feel pain?’

What am I saying? It’s a drone.

‘Yes, I can.’

Zoren was stunned. ‘I have to say I would never have imagined something like you could exist, and on top of that you look fantastic. One thing though, you appear to be a bit dusty,’ Zoren said, pointing to her head. ‘There’s a lot of dust in that…’ He waved his hand in a circular motion, trying to remember what Kalrea had called it. ‘Er... hair, yes that’s it, you have dust on your hair and shoulders.’

Kalrea brushed her shoulder with her hand. A wisp of dust flicked into the air. She suddenly sneezed.

‘Ah, this drone has been stored away for forty-three years.’ Kalrea stepped over to the console and viewed her reflection in the monitor. ‘Oh yes, I see what you mean. I think I need a shower,’ she chuckled.

She’s incredible. Look at her. If she hadn’t told me she was a drone, I’d have never known.

Kalrea turned to Zoren. ‘You look like you need a shower too and some new clothes. Those look a bit dirty and torn.’

Zoren glanced down at his clothes. ‘I don’t suppose you have anything my size onboard, do you?’

Kalrea smiled. ‘Come on, I’ll show you to the accommodation area. I’m sure they’ll be something that will fit you.’

A long well-lit corridor led away from the exit of the Pojin lift.

‘This way,’ Kalrea said.

Every where’s very clinical, almost feels like a medical facility,
Zoren thought, as he sauntered along the corridor behind Kalrea.
Erm... what’s that fragrance?
It’s… very pleasant.

‘Kalrea, what... is that smell?’ he asked with some hesitation.

‘Oh, you mean the fretron. It’s a plant from the planet, Vipl 3. It gives off an aroma that relieves any tension. It’s supposed to be very good for stress. I have to say, I’m not sure it really has an effect on me.’

Zoren smiled. ‘Trust me. I feel different. Yes, definitely more relaxed.’

‘Kalrea, how did you end up on the Polnozoo?’ Zoren asked, as they walked.

‘Well it came about by chance really. I was on the second moon of Golm at the time; I had been there for fifty-four years. I was partially buried in sand and detected a science ship scanning the surface. I was going to move, but then wondered what it would be like to remain inert. I didn’t allow them to scan the interior, so they couldn’t tell I was still operational. They were very scared of me at first. It took them point-seven of one of your standard years and ten probes before they finally plucked up the courage to come down and study me.’

‘What did they do?’

‘Well, at first they put all kinds of scientific devices on the
Aurora’s
hull. They even tried to take samples, but without success. The hull’s organic and is the strongest material I know of. It’s called a Plyan hull, named after a scientist from my planet who invented it. Their equipment registered a dead ship, so they eventually decided I had been abandoned and was therefore harmless. Six years ago they moved the
Aurora
to the Polnozoo and named me Exhibit 350 - The mystery ship from the second moon of Golm. What a bland name. They could have come up with something a bit more exciting.’

‘I am completely amazed,’ Zoren said. ‘I can’t believe you let them take you. What if they had cut you up to discover how you work?’

Kalrea laughed. ‘Oh, they’ve tried! I was fascinated by their need to explain where I had come from, what propelled the ship and most of all, how to get inside. The
Aurora
was like an unopened box to them. They speculated on the crew. Were they all dead and still inside? Or had the ship been abandoned, and if so why? I have to admit, I did occasionally have some fun with them.’

‘Fun. What sort of fun?’

‘I’d access their scanning devices and put some unexplained data in them.’

‘That’s a bit cruel.’

‘I know, but I couldn’t help it. They were so serious in their work and they wanted to find something. I just made sure they did.’

Kalrea led Zoren into a large room.

‘This is where you can stay.’

The room was larger than the home he and Sabri had onboard the space station. The bare walls were sloping slightly inwards and the whole ceiling seemed to be emitting light from its surface. Primary colours were used everywhere. The walls were a bright yellow, a large desk upon which sat a computer console was blue and the very conformable looking seats were a bright red. Zoren was impressed by the boldness of the colours, but also a little taken back by their over usage. Everything was very neatly arranged, nothing looked out of place.

Well, this is a big change compared to the other part of the ship I’ve just come from. Looks far more inviting. But dare I say it! It seems this room’s been tidied by a machine,
Zoren thought to himself, before commenting,

‘It’s an interesting room.’

‘Yes, it’s based on a typical Qinant home. I think you can probably find out how most things work. There are clothes in the compartment in the wall over there beside the seatra,’ she said, pointing to a metallic-looking slab in the corner of the room.

What’s a seatra?
Zoren thought, as Kalrea continued.
It looks very much like the slab on the bridge. I wonder what it is.

‘…The shower’s through that door. If you want anything to eat, then food-bars can be found in the wall compartment adjacent to the entrance. Any questions?’

Yes, loads!
he thought, but not wanting to appear stupid said unconvincingly,

‘No… I think I’m all right.’

‘I’ll leave you alone then.’

‘Er... Kalrea, isn’t there something missing? I can’t see a bed. Where do I sleep?’

‘Oh, sorry! Of course, you’ve never seen a seatra before.’

Kalrea moved over to the large metallic slab in the corner of the room. The top of the slab rose up revealing a black padded interior.

Zoren hurried over and peered inside.

‘This is a seatra,’ Kalrea explained. ‘When you’re inside, it places the body in suspended animation, so you will not age while you sleep.’

‘If it’s all the same to you, I’ll sleep with the lid open, please. No one’s going to put me in a box.’

‘Whatever you want,’ she replied. ‘Was there anything else?’

‘No… I’ll be fine.’

‘Then, I’ll leave you to settle in.’

‘Where will you be?’

‘I’m going to have a shower and then I’ll be on the bridge. Come up when you want to,’ Kalrea said and then left the room. The door slid shut behind her.

I wonder if she’s still watching me,
Zoren thought, glancing around the room for any signs of any monitoring devices.
Probably wouldn’t see them anyway. After all, I was being watched on the space station and didn’t know.

He wandered back to the door.

Has she locked me in?
Zoren searched for a way of opening it.
Kalrea walked up to it and it opened, but it’s not opening for me. She controls the ship, so she can probably control the doors as well. There must be a manual way of opening this.

There was a raised pad on each side of the door. Zoren pressed the one on the right-hand side, but nothing happened.
How does it work?
He pressed it again, but still the door remained closed.

He was holding his hand close to the pad, wondering what to try next, when suddenly a panel in the wall next to it slid open.

Ah, that’s definitely not the door!

Inside was a stack of coloured bars. Zoren took one.

Could be the food Kalrea mentioned.
He smelt it, but it had no obvious scent, so he bit off a very small piece.
It must be the food. It tastes… I suppose a bit like karnlip, but a lot sweeter.
He placed the food-bar in his pocket.

Zoren moved his hand close to the pad again.
I must be able to close it in the same way, but what did I do to open it?
He moved his hand sideways, across the pad. The door to the panel slid shut
. Ah, now I see.
He waved his hand over the pad and the panel opened once more.

Right, this one must be for the door then,
he thought, moving over to the left-hand pad. He waved his hand across it and the door slide open.
Well, at least I’m not locked in.

He peered out the doorway and then each way along the corridor. All was quiet outside.

Across the corridor was another door with a pad alongside it.

I wonder!

Zoren hesitantly crept across to the door.

I would like to look inside, but what if she’s watching me?

He waved his hand over the pad and the door slide open. Zoren stared into a dark room, his hearts pounded as he glanced towards the lift to check Kalrea was not there.

Lights illuminated the room.

Looks very similar to the other room,
Zoren thought.
Except!
He noticed there were some man’s clothes laid out over one of the seats, and there were some pictures on one of the walls.

Zoren ventured into the room, closing the door behind him.

This looks like someone’s still living here.

On one of the walls was a holographic picture of two people with their arms around each other.

They seem very intimate with each other. I imagine they’re married.

The man in the picture was dressed very similar to Kalrea’s drone, except his sleeves were yellow instead of green.

Zoren quickly searched through the contents of the wardrobe. There was no sign of any female clothes.

I wonder if this room is used by the man in the picture. But if that’s the case, then where is he?
Zoren took a fleeting look around the room
. Strange! Everything seems too tidy. Maybe I was wrong. I’m no longer sure anyone lives here. I’d better get back to my room.

Zoren moved towards the door. As he approached the pad to open the door, it opened catching him by surprise. He froze.

What do I say?

Zoren could feel both his hearts pounding.

Wait, what’s that noise?

A whine emanated from outside the door. The tone changed and a small robot hovered into the room. The robot did not seem to have any recognisable front or back, just many articulated arms with tools attached to some of them, which were neatly tucked around its body.

As soon as the robot had past him, he quickly moved through the doorway and went back to his room. Zoren sat in one the seats and took a deep breath. His hearts were still racing.

What the hell was that thing?
He glanced quickly around the room.
I hope there are none of those in here.

As he sat there the fragrance circulating around the room helped him to relax and his mind wandered back to the space station and Sabri. Deep inside, he suddenly felt lonely.

I really miss you, my love. I hope you’re all right.
He panned slowly around the unfamiliar room.
I wish you were here, Sabri. It all feels so unreal, like a dream. Today was just another day at work, yet now our home has gone. I don’t know where any of you are. All I know is that I need to find you, and quickly. I hope that Kalrea is telling me the truth. If she’s lying to me, then I may have to try to stop her somehow.

Zoren peered once more down at his torn and bloodied boiler suit.

I’d better get cleaned up and changed.

He undressed and then approached the door to the room containing the shower.

Looks like an air-tight door,
he thought, as he observed a seal around the door frame.

The room was very bare, with very smooth surfaces throughout. There was a pad on the far wall. He went over to it.

Glancing around, he wondered,
Where does the water come out? Oh well, something must happen when I activate this pad.
Zoren waved his hand over it.

The door closed and there was a suction noise from its edge.

Woe!

Zoren felt weightless and his legs left the floor. He tried to grab for anything, but there was nothing to hold onto. Then, jets of steam sprayed into the room striking his body. At first he felt uncomfortable, but as he got used to the steam massaging his skin, he felt very relaxed. After about ten minutes the steam stopped and jets of warm air then dried his body.

After the shower, Zoren rummaged through the wardrobe for clothes. Inside were many sizes, so it took him sometime to select something that he liked and would fit him. He stood admiring his new clothes in a mirror that was housed within the wardrobe.

These black trousers are a bit tight,
he thought.
Shirt not bad although a bit colourful. Not sure red is really my colour. Anyway, these will have to do. I should get to the bridge, so I can see what’s happening.

Zoren exited his room and went to the Pojin lift at the end of the corridor. Upon waving his hand over the pad alongside it, the door opened. Feeling pleased, he sauntered inside.

Ah… How does this lift work? There’s no pad inside or buttons. Kalrea didn’t do anything, the lift just arrived here, so maybe it only goes between here and the bridge.

Zoren waited, but the doors remained open. He glanced around the circular lift checking to see if he has missed anything.

If there are no buttons, then what makes it work?

Zoren felt a bit frustrated, and did not want to ask Kalrea for help; however, he had no choice. ‘Kalrea, can you hear me?’ Zoren said loudly.

Kalrea’s voice came from within the lift. ‘Yes, Zoren.’

‘Er... I’m having difficulty with the lift. There aren’t any buttons, so I’ve no idea how to get to the bridge.’

‘Speak to it,’ Kalrea replied. ‘You need to tell it where you want to go.’

‘Oh! Right,’ Zoren replied.
Now I’m going to talk to a lift.
‘Er… Can I go to the bridge… Please?’

The lift door closed.