Chroniech! (16 page)

Once these ships had been repaired, the Kyrra used them to again begin the transportation of their people to a place of safety. Time was now critical. The neutron star was due to arrive in just under 41 years and there were over a quarter million Kyrra still to be moved with only a handful of ships.

The Kyrra also had another, more pressing problem. Because their world had become a radioactive wasteland, their source of food had been removed. Compatible plants from a nearby star system would have to be used until a hydroponics garden of sufficient capacity could be constructed.

The ship the Komodo Dragon had discovered was one of the repaired slaver ships. It was transporting one of the few stasis modules which had survived the slaver invasion to the planetoid when the drive system had malfunctioned. That particular stasis chamber was considerably smaller than the others on the planetoid having been a development prototype.

The crew attempted to contact their base but discovered that the quickly assembled FTL transceiver was not working. They reasoned that if they did not arrive as scheduled, another ship would be sent out to search for them. Assuming this might take some time, the crew entered the stasis device. Help never arrived.

"Because of what has happened to them in the past," Stricklen continued. "The Kyrra are reluctant to reveal the exact location of the planetoid where their people were placed in stasis. They are also very cautious in talking about their technological abilities. I did find out some very interesting facts concerning their race.”

"The Kyrra are exceptionally long lived. In our terms they have a normal life-span on the average of 380 years. Between 120 and 230 years of life, each Kyrra will produce an average of one child. This means that not only are they long lived but their population grows very slowly. This is probably due to the nature of their ecosystem.”

"Another result of this slow growth, long life, and lack of racial competition has been that Kyrra technology was very slow to start. The Kyrra claim to have a recorded history going back at least 33,000 years. Once they had achieved a certain level of technology their thirst for knowledge and understanding gave them the desire to improve and their level of technological sophistication rapidly grew.”

"The five Kyrra who are now our guests come from a civilization that over 45,000 years ago possessed a level of technology at least a hundred years ahead of the best that the Alliance has to offer.”

"They do not like to talk about what they can do, but in speaking with them I have learned a little about their abilities. For instance, the stasis field is powered by a matter/anti-matter reactor which uses super-heavy metallic hydrogen as a storage medium for both the reaction masses. This provides the reactor with enough mass to run at its full output of 380 terra-watts for over 50,000 years."

The silence, which had been total until now, was suddenly broken by gasps of disbelief and wonder. Stricklen motioned for silence before continuing. "The Kyrra were also capable of traveling at speeds beyond even our wildest dreams. They had very high speed communications across interstellar space. They understood and could manipulate matter on an almost sub-atomic scale. If their civilization has survived to this day, then the technology they now possess would appear to us to be nothing less than magic.”

"All of their technology, however, did not prevent another race from nearly destroying them. They do not understand violence. It never occurred to them to build devices and weapons to protect themselves from aggressive species such as ours. We are extremely lucky that the slavers were an ignorant race, because if they had ever realized what sort of technological wonders they were so blindly destroying we would most likely not exist today."

Stricklen stood up to emphasize his last point. "The Kyrra cannot exist in our society. They would remain isolated and would be subjected to endless questions about their advanced technology. The Kyrra's computer has examined the history of the member races of the Alliance and has reached a similar conclusion.”

"Although we are a far cry from the likes of the slavers, all species which are currently members of the Alliance have had a history of aggressive behavior. It is their belief, and my fear as well, that their continued presence here will result in conflicts within the Alliance as one race after another attempts to gain the knowledge of the Kyrra in order to use it to their own advantage. The Kyrra will not allow this to happen and if I have a choice, neither will I."

Ken glanced at Sorbith and could not discern any clues as to how he was reacting to what had just been said. His cybernetic body was as still as a steel I-beam. Stricklen shifted his gaze to Trisk and noted that the Tholtaran was close to interrupting him. Ken figured the only reason Trisk had not broken his silence was he may be thinking that Stricklen had already discussed this issue with Sorbith and Trisk did not want to anger the peacekeeper again.

Placing his hands palm down on the table in front of him, Stricklen continued in a firm voice. "The Kyrra have requested we provide them with a ship so they can return to their people. In exchange for this ship they will provide us with a set of mathematical equations which more accurately describes the field structure dynamics of the space-time continuum. In time, we will be able to use these new equations to construct faster stardrives and better communication systems. As a representative of the Alliance, I have tentatively agreed to their proposal pending final approval from the Alliance ruling council.”

"Until that time, I am declaring the Kyrra guests of the Alliance under my protection and I am ordering all individuals to respect their privacy. Marine guards will enforce this privacy if required. This meeting is over."

Stricklen turned and quickly exited the room before anyone could recover from their shock. As the door was closing behind him he heard the stunned crowd break into an uproar. He did not care what they thought of him at the moment. He had made his decision and all he wanted to do now was sleep. He made it to his stateroom without being intercepted, set the door and intercom controls for privacy, and without bothering to remove his uniform, fell onto his bed and was instantly asleep.

9 - Change of Course

Shortly after the captain's meeting was over, Doug Scarboro personally checked the placement of the marine guards that Stricklen had ordered and found the security arrangements for the Kyrra to be satisfactory. He then briefly checked with the Kyrra to see if they needed anything. Two of them expressed a desire to tour the ship. Doug assigned a marine escort to them and off they went. He then made his way to the bridge where he was scheduled to begin his watch.

Doug had barely assumed the watch when Sorbith came through the door. The marine, of course, allowed him access without any challenge. Sorbith headed straight for Scarboro. "Do you know of any reason why Captain Stricklen has agreed to provide the Kyrra a ship? Did he discuss this decision with you?"

"No he did not," Doug replied. "The captain came to this decision by himself without any input from me. If he were to have asked me though, I believe I would have agreed with him. The Kyrra should not be forced to live in our society against their will. Doing so would be the equivalent of imprisoning them. They may be technologically our superiors but they are under no obligation to share that technology with us."

Sorbith seemed to consider this argument for a moment before replying. "You may be right, but, the captain had no right to make such a promise to the Kyrra without first discussing it with me."

"He did say that it was pending the approval of the Grand Council," Scarboro reminded him.

"True," Sorbith replied, "but the act of making the offer practically forces the council to agree. I believe a reversal of the captain's proposal would not be looked upon favorably by many people."

Scarboro smiled and nodded his head knowingly. "Then I think he made the right decision."

"As soon as he wakes I would like to speak with him," Sorbith concluded. After receiving a nod of acknowledgment from Doug, the peacekeeper turned and departed. The crew of the bridge let out a collective sigh of relief as the doors slid shut behind him.

A moment later, Trisk barged onto the bridge and also demanded to see the captain. Doug had had a feeling that Trisk might make an appearance. "The captain has left orders that he is not to be disturbed. I would recommend returning to your ship and I will… "

"We will just see about that!" Trisk angrily interrupted and turned to leave.

"I would not attempt to interrupt the captain's sleep," Scarboro calmly but firmly said. "The marine guarding his door has orders to arrest anyone who attempts to enter his cabin and seeing that this is his ship the captain's orders will have precedence over anyone else including yourself — Sir."

Trisk swung around and angrily glared at Scarboro for several seconds. Doug simply stared back with a questioning look on his face. Finally, Trisk turned and angrily exited the bridge muttering a string of Tholtaran curses as he left. Doug smiled at his departing back.

At the meeting, Ken had said that the Kyrra reactor was fueled by something called super-heavy metallic hydrogen. Metallic hydrogen was in common use throughout the Alliance. It was a room temperature super conductor without which much of Alliance technology would be impossible. Doug, however, had no idea what the super-heavy part of the name meant.

"Dragon, I know what metallic hydrogen is; what is the super-heavy form of metallic hydrogen?"

"The term super-heavy refers to the super-heavy form of elemental hydrogen. It is a theoretical possibility that the periodic table repeats itself but with elements possessing extraordinarily high atomic numbers."

That partially answered Doug's question but it did little to fill in the gap of knowledge he still possessed. He wanted to know more. "What exactly is a super-heavy element?"

The computer quickly referenced its known information concerning Doug's level of education and composed an explanation that was suitable for him. "As you are aware, the more protons and neutrons an atom has the more unstable the element becomes until a point is reached where the atom is so unstable, no additional nucleons can be added because the atom will spontaneously disintegrate.”

"There is a theory which indicates that if an atom could be constructed with a very large number of protons and neutrons a point would be reached where it would once again become stable. This has been referred to as the island of stability.”

"Such matter would be extremely dense and, because of the arrangement of the nucleus and electron cloud, may possess physical properties similar to normal matter. It is believed the periodic table of the elements could be repeated, at least in part, by this form of super-heavy matter. To date no theory exists as to how such matter could be created."

"It appears as if the Kyrra have mastered that bit of theory," Doug muttered under his breath. After digesting what he had just learned, he turned his attention toward his roll as officer of the watch.

Two and a half hours after Stricklen had retired, the Mobius contacted the Dragon. "We have received a report from the Rotara-Ahr." That ship, Doug recalled, was the lead ship of the group which had been left behind to continue salvage operations at the scene of the battle with the Chroniech. "They have picked up a large group of ships in pursuit. At the time of the transmission the estimated time to intercept was two hours. The message was sent about an hour ago."

"How many ships and what type?" Doug queried.

"At least fifteen. Their message stated that the exact types could not be determined accurately but the drive wakes suggest at least two are battleship class or above. They are out-gunned and there is nothing we can do to help."

Scarboro considered waking the captain but decided against it — there really was nothing they could do. A moment later, the bridge door slid open and a marine stepped inside. "Permission to tour the bridge with two guests?" he asked.

Doug granted permission and watched as the two Kyrra entered. Their presence created a small stir of excitement which quickly subsided when the XO displayed a look of displeasure. The marine gave the two Kyrra a brief tour of the bridge, momentarily stopping at each control and monitoring station.

After making a complete circuit of the bridge, the Kyrra approached Scarboro. Doug thought he recognized Trel'mara. One of them said, "I am Trel'mara and this is Tee'Chea. We would like to see the ships which attacked you and destroyed our transport — is this possible?"

Doug replied by saying, "Dragon! Display a visual of the Chroniech ships on my monitor."

In response to his command, one of the monitors on the command console came to life and a Chroniech battle-cruiser appeared. The picture had been taken from a distance by one of the other ships during the battle. The two Kyrra looked closely at the warship and conversed between themselves.

Tee'Chea asked, "There appears to be a marking on the side of the ship. Can you enlarge the image?"

Scarboro looked closely and saw what might be some type of external identification. During the heat of the battle such details had been missed. Doug requested the computer to enlarge and enhance the section of the ship where the marking appeared. The computer replied, "The symbol appears on another ship which was recorded during the battle. A better enhancement can be obtained using that image. Shall I use the better image?"

"Use the best image available," Doug replied. The computer displayed a highly magnified view of one of the Chroniech ships. A blurred symbol appeared on the screen which resolved itself into a clear image in less than a second as the computer enhanced the picture.

Doug stared at the symbol for a second then exclaimed, "I'll be damned! Why didn't anyone notice this earlier? Dragon, compare the symbol now displayed to the one on the derelict ship."

The screen split and the faint image of the derelict ship's markings appeared on the screen. "Although not identical," the computer said. "The two markings appear similar. There is a very high probability that the two symbols originated from the same race."