Chroniech! (6 page)

"We received a brief message about four hours ago saying that they were responding to a distress call from a heavy transport," the watch officer said. "We haven't heard anything from them since."

"Why was I not informed!" Stricklen replied his voice echoing in the shower stall.

"I… Ah… I did not see any reason to sir," stammered the young officer. "The Mobius did not indicate that they wanted our assistance and I felt our primary duty was to remain on-station to provide security for the alien ship."

The man's logic was sound. Stricklen calmed himself, then said, "You were correct lieutenant. If the Mobius arrives before I get to the bridge, please contact me via com-link."

Ken completed his morning routine without further interruption. After assuming control of the bridge he discovered that he had a message waiting for him from Doug. The scientists were going to present their first status report at 0900 and Scarboro wanted to know if this time was acceptable. Ken replied that it was.

At 0733, the Mobius arrived. It took the fleet until 0840 to match velocities and to position themselves in a protective shell around the alien ship. In all, sub-fleet K140 consisted of three medium cruisers, five destroyers, and one very impressive Tholtaran master-dreadnought. Ken had heard descriptions of Tholtaran warships but had never before seen one. The size of a Tholtaran warship was legendary.

The Mobius was roughly egg-shaped and had a maximum diameter of over twelve kilometers. Its surface bristled with weapon blisters. The Tholtarans had easily defeated Earth during the brief Human-Tholtaran war which had occurred shortly after Humans had journeyed into space. There were still some bitter feeling between the two races even though the war had ended over 50 years ago. Stricklen's own grandfather had been lost in that war.

"Fleet Commander Trisk of the Mobius on com-three for you sir," said the communications watch.

Stricklen put aside his feeling as best he could then made the connection. The leathery face of a Tholtaran appeared on his screen. "Fleet Commander Trisk, I am Captain Ken Stricklen. Were you successful in your rescue?"

"No," the gravely voice replied. "We arrived too late. All that remained of the transport was wreckage. We have established a security shield around your position. Although technically you are under my command, I have been ordered to provide assistance to you in whatever way possible. Therefore, you are considered under my command only in-so-far as fleet operations are concerned. The research effort is to remain under your control. Do you require any assistance from us at this time?"

It took a few moments for Stricklen to digest what Trisk had just said. Ken had expected to be relieved of responsibility for the research effort as soon as the Mobius had arrived. "No assistance is needed at this time," Stricklen replied. "The science team is about to present their first status report in my conference room. You are welcome to attend if you so desire."

"I will send a representative," Trisk replied after a moments consultation with another officer. "Are the Mintaka survivors ready for transport?"

The orders which Ken had received earlier had stated that a small courier ship would be taking the survivors back to Almaranus. As soon as the fleet had arrived Stricklen had sent word for them to get ready to leave. "They are ready. I will have them meet your shuttle at the docking port. I assume the courier is docked within your ship?"

"Yes. It will leave as soon as the survivors are aboard. Mobius out." The connection snapped and the monitor went dark.

Ken called the conference room and told the gathering crowd that he would be delayed a few minutes. He asked them to wait until he arrived before beginning. He then made his way to the docking port to await the arrival of the Tholtaran shuttle.

The four survivors rescued from Mintaka were there when Stricklen arrived. He exchanged pleasantries with them while they waited. Ken was still amazed as to how well they had handled the loss of so many of their close friends and loved ones. The ship's psychologist had explained that these people were used to death. She did say, though, that the miner's would most likely have a strong emotional reaction once they reached their respective homeworlds or at least the world they called home.

The shuttle arrived and discharged a single Tholtaran. The alien looked very much like a 138 centimeter tall vulcanized version of a Human with large ears. Their leathery skin and deeply inset eyes acted to protect them from the harsh ultra-violet light of their homeworld's sun.

Ken welcomed the Tholtaran aboard then turned his attention to his departing guests. He made sure he shook each individual's hand and bid each one a safe journey home. He watched until the docking portal had closed, then, turning to the Tholtaran representative he said, "The science team is waiting for us in the conference room. Please follow me."

The conference room was packed with 23 people when Ken arrived. Most were members of the science team and were standing together at the back of the room. The murmur of a dozen conversations slowly dropped off as Stricklen took his place at the head of the oval table.

"Thank you for waiting," he began. "This is science advisor Bronack of the Tholtaran republic. I have asked him here as a courtesy to the Tholtaran fleet which will be providing the area security during our stay here. I will not delay you any longer — Falnath, please proceed."

The dragon-like body of the Rouldian scientist was positioned in an out of the way corner of the room. A computer keyboard had been placed in front of her. She entered commands and the room lights dimmed. A hologram of the derelict ship appeared in the center of the conference table. As Falnath spoke, the image constantly shifted apparently in response to verbal cues which she had instructed the computer to follow.

"For the last twelve hours we have subjected the derelict to an extensive series of tests. During this time we have learned a great deal. Some of the results have been amazing. I will start with the ship itself. Extensive testing has confirmed that the ship is roughly 44,600 years old. The margin for error is plus or minus 300 years. Multiple methods have yielded the same age and we are confident that this is an actual derelict and not something designed to appear as such.”

"The general construction of the ship is roughly equivalent to the technological level of most Alliance spacecraft of about 20 years ago. We have not learned anything new from the ship itself but we have found several modifications which were made to the ship that are of a technological level superior to ours. These modifications were not easily found and would have been overlooked during a cursory examination of the ship. We are still looking into exactly what these modifications do.”

"The object in the cargo bay is not of the same technological level as the ship but is far beyond even our abilities. Based upon the evidence, we believe that a technologically superior race was using the ship from an inferior race to transport the object. This would explain the modifications made to the ship and the presence of the object in the cargo bay. We have no meaningful explanation as to why an advanced race would use an inferior race's spacecraft as a cargo ship although several theories have been proposed.”

"We have concentrated most of our efforts on the object in the cargo hold. As you are all aware, the ship was originally discovered when the Komodo Dragon detected a strange pulsating gravitational field. It is now known that a single device is the source of those gravitational waves. Until very recently, the entire object was shielded in such a way as to have prevented any detection even upon close examination of the ship.”

"Recently, within the last forty-five days or so, a small asteroid, traveling at a high relative velocity apparently impacted the ship, penetrated the armor plate, and inflicted minor damage to the object in the cargo hold. Part of the shielding system was damaged along with an additional shielding system for a device which I will describe in a moment."

Falnath turned and looked toward Ken as she continued, "Captain Stricklen, you have seen this shielding system up close. It's the shimmering force field you found so fascinating. A tiny section of the force field emitter has been damaged. This resulted in a leakage path for gravitational energy and, since the ship was slowly spinning, the Komodo Dragon detected this as a pulsating gravity field."

An overhead view of the object in the cargo bay appeared on the large display screen at the front of the room. The entrance was near the center of one side. Directly in front of the entrance was a control console. The right side of the object contained box-like equipment racks. The left end was taken up by the large glowing, shifting, ball and was surrounded by still more equipment. The entire back wall consisted of a single large machine. As Falnath spoke, the various areas she was referring to were highlighted.

"We have identified the equipment to the right of the chamber to be mostly monitoring devices. They are operating and, as far as we can tell, are functioning normally. The large box in the far corner is a computer of extremely advanced design. Most of its internal systems appear to be in some sort of low power standby state. At present, we do not believe we can fully activate it."

"I would think that doing so would be unwise," the Dragon's security officer interrupted.

Falnath ignored the comment and pressed on. "The control console is of a very complex design and its purpose is still being researched. The object behind the console is a power reactor."

Falnath lifted herself up until her head was nearly at ceiling level. She scanned the room slowly then continued. "Our instruments show that this reactor is currently generating a continuous power output of 120 terra-watts."

The reaction Falnath expected was instantaneous. "Impossible!" several people shouted at once. A babble of voices clashed and then subsided until a single quiet voice won out. The Dragon's chief engineer said, "That kind of a power plant would be tremendously huge and, assuming we could even build one, would consume enormous quantities of fuel each second. Where is it getting the fuel? How is it controlled? And most importantly what is demanding that much energy?"

Falnath surveyed the room until she found the person she was looking for. "Mr. Demu, would you care to answer."

The indicated individual, who was seated at the table, stood up and glanced around the room. Mr. Demu was a Shandarian, a race of people that from a distance could very easily be mistaken for a Human. Similar in form and size the only differences between the two races was the noticeably smaller nose and mouth and the fact that the Shandarian eyelid moved horizontally instead of vertically.

"We have not completed our analysis of the reactor," Mr. Demu said in a surprisingly deep voice. "However, we believe the ultimate source of power is based on matter/anti-matter reactions. At its current power output level the reactor is converting over 4.8 kilograms of mass to energy each hour."

Pointing to a structure on the screen the scientist continued. "The fuel is being supplied by these two globular structures near one end of the reactor. These structures contain an extremely dense form of matter which is still being analyzed. Our readings are being hampered by some sort of shielding.”

"The bulk of the power is being fed into the large device at the far left of the chamber. This is the device where we have focused virtually all of our research efforts. It is generating a powerful, spherical gravitational field. The field structure is very complex and we have detected other fields embedded within the sphere itself.”

"We have also been able to determine that there is a null area of about seven meters in diameter within this sphere. The surrounding fields of energy consist of a complex mixture of gravitational fields and others, some of which closely resemble those generated by a stardrive."

"Stop!" Bronack said loud enough to cause everyone in the room to look in his direction. The Tholtaran got out of his seat, placed both arms on the table in front of him, and leaned as close as he could toward the hologram. The room was silent as he seemed to examine the contents of the chamber more closely.

After a moment Bronack turned to Falnath and said, "This is rubbish! What kind of joke are you trying to pull? Stardrive fields cannot exist within an area of space permeated by gravitational fields. You are saying that this device is using a combination of gravitational and stardrive fields to perform its function? What you are saying is impossible."

Waving his hand in the direction of the screen, the Tholtaran's tirade escalated. "You also claim that this device is powered by a reactor of unimaginable power. You say that this power is derived from a matter/anti-matter reaction, yet it is common knowledge that anti-matter is too difficult to manufacture in even minute quantities to be a useful power source. Again what you are saying is impossible. Explain!"

Falnath looked at the Tholtaran. Stricklen could not decipher the Rouldian's expression. She reached out to her computer console and commanded the room's lights to full intensity before shifting her attention toward Bronack. A low hiss came from her throat before she replied. "I am presenting the facts as we have discovered them," the vocoder translated. Ken could barely make out her native language but he thought it sounded a little raspier than normal. "If you dispute the facts then I will be glad to discuss the matter with you at a later time. For now I wish to continue with this briefing."

"I agree with Falnath," Stricklen said. "Please return to your seat. You may meet with her after the meeting if you still have questions."

Bronach seemed to hesitate for a moment then, muttering something under his breath, sat back down.

"Please continue," Stricklen said to the now silent room.

Falnath visibly calmed herself before continuing. "We have theorized that the combination of fields within the device has created a unique condition within the null region of the sphere. Tell me captain, during your initial search of the ship did you find any evidence of the crew?"