Earthman Jack vs. The Ghost Planet (14 page)

Anna reached up and touched the ship, running her hands
across the brilliant white exterior.  “I don’t see a way in,” she said.

Shepherd’s faceplate closed up again.  “Scanning,” he said
in his armored voice.  “I’m not reading any anomalies in the ship’s hull.  No
sign of an entrance.  The casing isn’t like anything I’ve seen before.”

“Perhaps… perhaps it’s not really a ship?” ventured Green. 
“Maybe it’s not meant to carry passengers?”

“What else could it be?” asked Anna.

Jack sighed and walked up beside her.  “Man, things are
never easy with you guys, are they?” he said, leaning up against the ship’s
hull.

No sooner had his hand made contact than the hull peeled
back like an iris, with Jack falling through, into the ship and onto the floor.

“M’okay…” mumbled Jack as he lumbered back onto his feet. 
Shepherd’s mask retracted again, and he gave Jack a curious look.

“Why is this Ancient technology only responding to him?” Shepherd
asked.

“If the Professor is right, that the Earthlings were created
as an outgrowth of this temple’s influence, it could be that they are
specifically attuned to the technology in it,” said Anna.

“But you’re of the royal bloodline,” said Shepherd.  “You
should be able to interface with all Ancient technology.”

“Unless this technology was not meant to be used by the
Ancients!” said Green.

“What are you saying, Professor?” asked Anna.

Green walked up to Jack, who was gazing around the small
decompression chamber he was in and slapped his large green hand on Jack’s
shoulder.

“Perhaps the Ancients meant for this ship only to be used by
Earthmen,” he said.  “Perhaps life on this planet wasn’t a fluke!  Maybe it was
engineered for the specific purpose of one day finding and using… well…
this
!”

Green gestured to the ship around him.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa – lemme get this straight…” said Jack. 
“Are you saying I have my own personal spaceship?”

“Well,” said Green, “most likely any native Earthling would
be able to interface with this technology—”

“No way,” said Jack quickly.  “I call dibs!”

“Need I remind all of you that an army of Deathlords is still
trying to break in here?” grumbled Shepherd.

“Ah, yes,” said Green, as though he really did need to be
reminded.  “I suppose we should continue on to the bridge with haste then,
hmmmm?”

Anna and Shepherd entered the decompression chamber, and the
hull sealed back shut.  The room glowed blue for an instant and then was
illuminated in a bright white light.  Another door leading into the ship opened
and more lights lit up as the ship slowly came to life.

Jack looked around in awe as he and the others gingerly
stepped into the hallway before them.  It was made up of shiny silver panels,
and the floor beneath them was glowing, leading toward a large circular room
with a floor made of smooth, white metal.

“Hey,” said Jack as he stepped into the room.  “This floor
looks just like that thing we landed on when we came from the cornfield.”

The others studied the floor, too.  “Portgates are used for
traveling long distances,” said Shepherd.  “You need static locations to use
them.  They wouldn’t work on a ship.”

“Maybe it’s not a portgate?” ventured Green.  “Perhaps a
derivative?  Something like it?”

Anna looked around.  “Whatever it is, I don’t see any
controls,” she said.  “No interface panel, nothing.”

“What about your keypad thingy?” Jack asked Anna.  “The
thing you used to get us down here in the first place?”

“It’s called an Imperius,” said Anna taking it out of her
pocket.  “It’s kind of like a universal remote control for all Ancient
technology.”

“Yeah,” said Jack, not really caring.  “Will it work?”

Anna tapped on it for a moment and shook her head.  “It
doesn’t seem to be responding to anything in here.”

“Well, there must be someway to get to the bridge,” said
Green.

Suddenly, Green disappeared in a flash of light.  Anna
shrieked.

“Where’d he go?” asked Jack, startled.

Shepherd looked around, as if he were expecting some sort of
attack.  He tapped the side of his helmet to activate his communicator.

“Professor,” he said.  “Do you read me?”

After a moment’s pause, Green’s cheery voice emanated from a
speaker in Shepherd’s helmet. 

“I’m okay!” he said.

“Where are you?” asked Shepherd.

“I’m on what I believe to be the bridge,” Green responded. 
“It would seem the platform is voice activated, based on where you want to go.”

Anna and Shepherd looked at each other.

“Bridge,” they both said in unison.  And with a flash, they
disappeared, leaving Jack alone.

Jack smiled to himself. 
I’m about to teleport,
he
thought. 
This is so cool.

“Bridge!” he said.

It was as if Jack had blinked his eyes, and he was now
somewhere else.  There were no weird feelings of dizziness or nausea like there
were when he portgated.  The whole thing was quick and painless.

He stepped off a platform made of the same white metal and
into a huge, oval shaped room that was divided into four tiers.  The top tier
was fenced in by smooth guardrails and made up entirely of the teleportation material. 
The third tier jutted out in a half circle, leading around to two door hatches
at the back of the room, one on either side.  Beneath that was a tier that
contained various control panels and comfortable looking bucket seats. 
Finally, the last tier stretched out and met the smooth walls of the room, with
a circular platform that contained a large silver chair hovering above it.  The
chair had a high back and two wide armrests with clear, glass-like domes at the
end of them.

Anna and Shepherd gazed around in awe.  It was obvious that
they’d never seen anything like this before.  Professor Green was excitedly
rushing from one part of the bridge to the other, looking at all the controls
and doohickeys he could find.

“Amazing!” he muttered.  “Fascinating!  Hmmm… I wonder what
this does?”

Jack’s eyes focused in on the chair at the lowest tier.  He
felt a weird tingle in the back of his head and suddenly had the urge to go to
it.  As he stepped down to the second tier, the chair turned to face him.  He
stopped and looked at it hesitantly.  He could feel everyone’s eyes on him.

“I think it wants you to sit in it,” said Anna.

The super-awesome spaceship wanted him to sit in the
super-awesome floating chair?  Jack didn’t need to be told twice.

He climbed in and laid his hands on top of the two clear
domes on the armrests.  They instantly lit up with bright light.  The chair
turned back toward the front of the room, and suddenly, the smooth white walls
of the bridge flickered and were replaced with an almost 360 degree view of the
outside.

“This is so much better than
Nova Commander
,” Jack
joked to himself.

“Ah-ha!” said Green, standing behind one of the control
panels on the second tier.  “These controls have just booted up.  Jack must
have activated them when he sat in the chair.”

Shepherd walked to Green’s side.  “Can it still fly?” he
asked.

“Best I can tell, everything seems to be in working order. 
This appears to be a navigation panel,” said Green.  “These things look like
star maps…” Green tapped on the control panel and the screens in front of him
lit up.  “That panel over there seems to be for communications,” he said,
pointing to the panel next to him.  “That one would appear to be weapons, and
the far one for the ship’s systems,” he continued, pointing to the far panels
on the other side of the second platform.

“Where are the flight controls?” asked Shepherd.

“Ask Jack,” smiled Green.  “He seems to be sitting in the
pilot’s seat.”

Jack grinned.  “Now we’re talking!” he said.

Anna walked up to him.  “Jack, if this ship is like other
Ancient technology we’ve encountered, it works by interfacing directly with
your thoughts,” she said.  “Just think about something, and the ship will
follow your commands.”

“Okay,” said Jack.  “What should I think about?”

Then, on the viewscreen in front of them, the door to the
temple exploded, and in rushed a flood of Deathlord soldiers.

“Shields would probably be a good start,” said Shepherd
dryly.

Jack tried to think about raising shields, like the golden
energy thing Shepherd had created when fighting the Deathlords, but nothing
happened.  Outside, the Deathlords began to fire at the ship, their red plasma lasers
streaking across the chasm and impacting the gleaming white metal of its hull.

A strange sensation washed over Jack, as though he could
actually feel the impacts of the blasts himself.  They didn’t hurt, but he
instinctively knew where they were hitting, and how much damage they were
causing.

“Anytime, Jack,” said Shepherd more insistently.

“I’m trying,” said Jack.  “Nothing’s working!”

Green rushed over to the ship’s system control panel and
started typing furiously.  “I think the ship is still powering up,” he said.

“How long before we can raise the shields?” asked Shepherd.

“I don’t know,” said Green.  “All the data is in ancient Old
Solar, I’m afraid I’m not very familiar with it.  Old Solar, I know, but the
ancient form…”

Shepherd cursed under his breath and moved to the panel
Green had pointed out for weapons.  He tried accessing it for a moment before the
archaic language on the screens forced him into giving up on it as well. 
“Jack!” he barked.  “Can you get us out of here?”

Jack tried imagining everything possible he could think of
for the ship to do, including growing two legs and dancing out of there, but
nothing was working.  He looked at the army of Deathlords as they streamed in
from the open temple door. 
Just my luck,
he thought. 
I actually get
my own spaceship, and it’s about to be destroyed by evil aliens.

“Jack,” insisted Anna, “you have to focus…”

“I
know
, okay?” hissed Jack.  For some reason this
wasn’t as easy as it was when he had accessed the door or the lights to the
temple.  This was different somehow – the ship was different.  He kept trying
to picture what it would look like for the shields to raise or the engines to
start up, but no matter what Jack thought of, nothing was happening.  There
were too many distractions – the Deathlords were invading, Professor Green,
Shepherd, and Anna were all yelling at him, and he still had that weird feeling
in the back of his head…

“Jack!” yelled Shepherd. “Can you work this thing or not?”

“Maybe if people would stop
yelling
at me…” he
hollered back.

Then, two massive balls of ghostly energy screamed forth
from the exit and rocked the ship.  An alarm began to sound and suddenly the
lights on the bridge turned red.  Jack looked up to see two Deathlords on the
entrance platform, hurling balls of death energy at them.

“They’re trying to cripple the ship,” warned Shepherd.

“Oh, dear,” moaned Green.  “That would not be good.”

Anna climbed up on the platform by Jack’s seat and leaned in
toward him.  “Jack, what’s wrong?” she asked.

“I don’t know,” said Jack.  “I’m trying to work it the way
you told me to, but it’s not… I don’t even know how we’re going to get out of
here!  There’s no opening anywhere, and even if there were, we’re in the
Earth’s core surrounded by a ton of freakin’ magma!  How’d they even get this
thing here in the first place?”

Anna placed a hand on his arm.  “Calm down,” she said.

Jack looked at her.  His heart was racing a mile a minute,
but somehow, her blue eyes made him get control of himself.  He took a deep
breath.

“I’m calm,” he said.

“Now,” continued Anna.  “Close your eyes, and listen.”

“Listen to what?” asked Jack.

“The ship,” she said.  “It’s trying to talk to you.”

“How do you know?”

“Because,” smiled Anna.  “That’s how it works with me.”

Jack nodded.  He closed his eyes and listened.  He heard the
sound of the alarms.  He heard Professor Green and Shepherd talking.  He heard
the thuds against the hull as more energy bolts made their impact.  He didn’t
know what he was listening for, and that buzzing in the back of his head was
starting to get really annoying…

Wait a minute…
thought Jack.

There was a buzzing, wasn’t there?  It was the same weird sensation
he’d had when he first approached the pilot’s chair.  But it wasn’t really a
sound; it was more like a feeling.

Jack focused on that feeling.  The buzzing got more
intense.  Then, things began to flash into his mind. 

He remembered something from when he was interfacing with
the access orb – a bunch of images, almost like instructions on how to operate
something… a spaceship!  That’s what it was, instructions on how to operate a
spaceship!  But there was so much information… what did it all mean?  None of
it made a whole lot of sense.

Then, he remembered the eye he had seen, the big eye
floating in space, shimmering with brilliant rays of light.  It had been looking
at him, as though it were waiting for something…

How do I get us out of here?
Jack asked.

Jack felt a surge in his hands.  He opened his eyes and
looked at the glowing domes on the armrests.  He felt a strange sensation, like
an electrical current running between his hands and the domes.

In front of him, a holographic screen appeared in the air,
so he could see both the data on it and the viewscreen at the same time. 
Strange words and numbers began to flash up on the screen.

Anna hopped off the chair and looked at it curiously.  “What
did you do?” she asked.

“I’m… not sure,” replied Jack.  “I think this is how we can
get out of here… somehow.”