Ghosts of Ophidian (9 page)

Fourteen

By the time Conner and Dawn left the shuttle bay, the ship had begun its departure from Earth’s orbit. She was carrying her helmet with her as they followed the corridor to the section of the ship that the AI had recommended.

“Why are you seriously here, Doctor?” Conner asked.

“I already told you,” she replied, “And stop calling me Doctor. Dawn is just fine.”

“Well, I don’t believe you’re here just because you want to place all your chips on that off-chance that we’ll actually find a habitable planet,” he said.

“You don’t think we will?” she asked, turning to him.

“No, honestly I really doubt it,” he replied, “How many planets would happen to have the right mixture of oxygen, liquid water, ozone, tolerable gravity, and a star that’s in the right stage of its life? That’s not to mention the fact that it would need to have fertile soil so we could at least plant some food.”

“So this is a suicide mission for you,” she stated.

“Pretty much,” he replied, “What did you think my chances would have been even if we
did
find a new planet? I’m an alien amidst millions of those creatures in the cargo hold. And keep in mind that I’m on their ship – not the other way around.”

“I can’t believe you, Steele,” she said.

“I told you not to stay, Dawn,” he said, “And please, call me Conner.”

“Well,
I’ll have you know that this isn’t a suicide mission for me. I intend to learn their language with the help of the AI. Then, I will learn everything I can about them through whatever I discover on this ship. Then when they all wake up, I will tell them what happened and ask to be welcome among them as we work together to survive on a new planet,” she said, “And I was hoping you’d join me on this little adventure. After all, aren’t you the one who told me it hurts to be alone?”

He stopped in the corridor and looked at her. She turned to him with her hand on her hip.

“That’s why you stayed,” he said, “And you really have it all plotted out.”

“I do,” she said, “Now are you with me or not?”

“I’m with you, Doctor Dawn Crossway,” the AI interjected, “I will teach you the language that you wish to learn.”

Conner chuckled, shaking his head.

“Apparently there’s no privacy on this ship,” he said, scratching his head, “Yes, Dawn, we’ll do things your way.”

. . . .

They spent the rest of that day discovering the small carpeted section of the ship dedicated to the comfort of a fairly small crew. It was quickly evident that this ship was meant to support only a minimal staff of non-sleeping crewmates, as there were only ten berthings that surrounded a central dining or meeting room. The two bathrooms were unusual, but it didn’t take them very long to figure those out.

The AI directed them to the smaller of the four food storage rooms. This particular storage room was meant to supply the crew that
was meant to inhabit the carpeted section since it was situated nearby and didn’t contain an extreme abundance of food. The AI informed them that there were no refrigerated or frozen foods available to them because those were kept in a different storeroom and even so, they were only frozen versions of the food they currently had access to.

The aliens didn’t rely on a wide variety of foods. There were on
ly four kinds of food available on the whole ship. One of the foods was something that reminded them of the green pellets that rabbits and guinea pigs would eat. They were also equally as crunchy. Neither Conner or Dawn found them very tasty.

Another of the foods was something like a square cookie, except it didn’t seem to contain any sugar. It was less painful on the teeth than the rabbit pellets, but equally as flavorless. The
third kind of food was a powder-coated ball of taffy, or at least that was the consistency it had. As far as flavor however, the taffy followed along the lines of the other foods.

The fourth and most appealing of the foods was something that reminded them of corn flakes. It had a very subtle sweetness, giving it a little more flavor than the other foods. The only disappointment c
ame from how dry it was since they would be forced to consume the “cereal” without milk.

The water tasted very metallic, but they figured it had to be expected for as long as it had to have been stored inside the ship. The AI admitted however that there was a
water filtration system in use on the ship, so they figured they should be grateful it didn’t taste even worse.

Their next immediate concern was the temperature inside the ship
. While the bedrooms they selected offered each of them a comfortable bed with two blankets each, this would not sustain them throughout their waking hours. Since all the other beds were not in use, they took more blankets in order to ensure their sleep would be spent in comfortable warmth. The blankets all smelled dusty and old, but they decided to worry about their laundry issues later.

They searched the rooms for clothing, but located nothing of the sort. The AI eventually understood their request and directed them to a storage room on the next floor up. There, they discovered Carhartt-like one-piece uniforms of all sizes. Unfortunately for their particular needs, it appeared as though the aliens didn’t wear any kind of underwear. They located their particular sizes and brought several uniforms back to their
respective bedrooms.

Fifteen

Conner awoke to
the discovery that he had no way of knowing what time it was or if it was even a new day. He drew one of his blankets around himself as he rose from the bed. It took him a moment to locate the light switch in the dark. After banishing the darkness from the room, he located the wrist unit from his spacesuit. The digital display told him that it was 6:41am.

Without the benefits of a sun, a moon, or even a planet to stand on, he would have to rely on that timepiece to keep track of the passage of time.
Accepting that he wasn’t going back to sleep, he decided to try on one of the alien uniforms and begin a new day of investigations throughout the ship.

“AI, can you hear me?” he asked as he struggled with the unusual clasps
on the alien Carhartts.

“Yes, Conner Steele,” it replied, “You’ll be pleased to note that we are no longer in the gravitational well of your star.

“Does that mean we are no longer in the solar system?”

“Yes,” the AI replied.

“Hmm… I was going to ask you if you could teach me your language,” he asked, “I mean, the language of those people in your cargo hold.”

“Yes, though I’m not
quite sure how to teach someone a language,” it replied.

“I could just give you words and you can tell me what they are in your language,” he said, moving around the room to test the feel of his new outfit.

“Okay, we will do that,” it said.

There was a sudden knock at his door.

“I want to learn too, Conner,” her voice came from beyond the door.

He opened the door and discovered that she too was dressed in one of the
alien uniforms. He stepped aside and gestured her into his room.

“I could hear you two talking through the wall,” she said, “I didn’t want you to learn the language before I
could get a chance to.”

“I was thinking of going for a walk of discovery while I bounced some words back and forth with the AI,” he said.

“Let’s do it, then,” she stated.

. . . .

They spent the morning moving through the forward portions of the ship, all the while practicing the gurgling sounds that went with the words they were learning from the AI. They started with the basic words they felt they would need when introducing themselves to the aliens they now learned were referred to as “Ah Fidonay”. This meant that they would need to learn words such as friend, peace, help, planet, shuttle, and dozens of others.

Conner and Dawn quizzed each other on these words as they made their way to the ship’s observatory. The AI had recommended the observatory because although there were no windows on the ship, it did offer a live view outside the ship at all times.

“Orna cha kan,” Conner said as they exited the stairs on the seventh floor.

“Okay, now what about ‘we fix
ed the ship’?” she asked.

“Nocknay doo ee cla la,” he said.

“Nocknay doo ee
kah
la,” she corrected him, stressing the “kah.”

“Hey, I was close,” he defended.

“Close doesn’t count when we have no idea what we’re saying,” she said, punching him in the shoulder, “You could have been cussing out the Ophidians for all you know.”

“
Ophidians?” he asked.

“Ah Fidonay… Ophidian,” she said, “Come on, you’ve got to admit their skin looks a lot like a snake’s.”

“Ophidians,” he laughed, “I like it. We haven’t even been formally introduced yet and here we’ve already given them a derogatory nickname that sounds like their Ah Fidonay.”

“I wonder if they’d be offended?” she pondered.

“Offended Ophidians,” he added, “I doubt they’d mind that name.”

“Good, then they shall forever be called Ophidians from Ophidia,” she grinned.

“The observatory is the room located at the end of the hall,” the AI said, “Observatory is ‘stoo konay’.”

“Stoo konay,” Conner repeated with
an exaggerated gurgling sound.

Dawn laughed, then repeated the word also.
Her version was more accurately pronounced than Conner’s.

“I wonder how long we
will have to get this crazy language mastered,” he pondered, as they approached the open doorway.

“Using the timeframe of a typical day on your planet, I would expect us to reach the new destination in
two hundred and six days,” the AI stated, “We will be reaching our maximum speed in about three days.”

“Informative as always,” she said as she entered the room, “Oh my.”

The room they entered was circular and dome-shaped. The expanse that was outer space was poured out before them in all directions except beneath them. The stars filled their sky, pinpricks of light of all magnitudes.

“It doesn’t seem like we’re moving at all,” she said, spinning slowly in the center of the room.

“We are moving at nearly a third of the speed of light right now,” the AI stated, “When we achieve our maximum speed, we will be traveling at more than 99% light speed.”

“
I guess with those great distances between the stars, we wouldn’t really see them flying past us like in the movies,” Conner stated.

“True,” she replied, “Still, it does look pretty awesome
the way they do it in the movies.”

“What will you
r kids do when they realize you’re not coming home?” Conner asked.

She moved her gaze from the ceiling to Conner who now appeared to have been entranced by her. She now felt almost embarrassed by her childlike display of spinning beneath the stars.

“Chad, the one in jail, probably won’t think anything at all. He’s the epitome of the term ‘loner’. That boy has never needed anyone in his life and it shows all too much,” she said, “Maybe he’ll care, but it makes me feel better right now to believe he won’t. Richard, on the other hand, will probably be pretty angry with me. He and I were always closer than Chad and I.”

“Do you think he’ll forgive you?” he asked.

A door closed in the distance. Conner turned to the doorway, confused by the interruption.

“Are you still shutting doors through
out the ship, AI?” Conner asked, reaching for the weapon that he no longer had attached to his leg.

“I have closed no doors today. I am doing nothing right now beyond adjusting the course of the ship to avoid an asteroid fi
eld up ahead,” the AI replied.

“I heard a door close,” he said, moving quickly to the doorway.

“The door to the tool storage on this level was opened a moment ago and then closed,” the AI replied.

“What?” Dawn blurted, quickly joining Conner by the doorway, “
How did the door open and close?”

“I do not have an answer to your question,” the AI replied.

“Are there others aboard?” Conner asked.

“Just the ones
you verified were stored in the cargo hold,” the AI replied.

“Would you know if there were other people moving about?” Conner asked, “What about the three who were revived?”

“I would know if there were people moving about inside this ship. I do not have any knowledge regarding people being revived in the cargo hold,” it replied.

Conner moved into the corridor, wary of the nearby doors.

“Where is the tool storage?” Conner asked.

“It is the fourth door on the right as you leave the stoo konay,” the AI replied.

He looked back at the observatory where Dawn remained standing in the doorway. He had already passed two doors on the right, so that meant the room in question was two more doors further down the corridor. Neither he nor Dawn were armed, so his only hope would be to locate a tool immediately inside the storage room to use in self-defense.

“
Is there anyone inside the storage room?” Conner asked.

“No, but
my answer may not be trustworthy. Searching through my recent records, I show that no one was on this floor at all except for Conner Steele and Dawn Crossway,” the AI replied, “I am now curious about many activities that had oddly never piqued my curiosity before.”

“What do you mean?” Dawn asked, rushing toward Conner who was now approaching the tool storage.

“I have records of many doors opening and closing throughout the ship over the course of what would be two hundred and forty three days by your reckoning,” the AI replied.

“But you don’t have records of anyone moving about?” Conner asked, “Would you know if there were
Ophid… I mean,
Ah Fidonay
roaming the ship?”

“I have no records
of movement to explain these events. If any Ah Fidonay were revived and moving throughout the ship, I would certainly have record of this,” it replied.

“I don’t like this at all,” Conner muttered.

He motioned for Dawn to take a step back while he prepared to open the door. He readied himself for a physical attack as he took hold of the lever on the door. He shoved it down quickly and slammed the door open. With one fist brought up to ward off an attack, he reached over and turned on the light.

The room before him was filled almost to capacity with all types of foreign tools. To his right, he found
several large tools that resembled a combination shovel and power saw. Next to those were some other large bladed tools along the lines of shovels, hoes, and scythes.

He took one of the scythes as he continued to examine the room. A giant shelving unit encircled the far half of the room, loaded with a plethora of foreign tools, hardware, and machinery. To his immediate left was a mess of overturned crates, spilling forth their cont
ents onto the floor. Much of the oddities looked like the internal makings of electronics such as computers, radios, and the like.

“It looks like someone was raiding these crates,” Conner said.

Dawn was standing behind him now, following the direction of his gaze.

“AI, I have a question. If you can hear us when we talk to you, couldn’t you hear the ruckus of someone digging through this stuff in here?” she asked.

“If I was listening for such a noise, yes. From my point of view, there is a lot of noise inside this ship,” it replied, “For now, I only listen for voices.”

“But can’t you search your memory for the sounds inside this room?” Dawn asked.

“I do not record the sounds of the ship. Because of this, I cannot retrieve the past sounds inside various rooms,” it replied.

“Well, something is going on inside your ship and you might want to find out what it is. Don’t forget that
the Ah Fidonay were most likely the ones who cut off your access to the cargo bay,” Conner stated, “What if they plan on shutting down this whole ship?”

“My curiosity has been piqued as I stated earlier, Conner Steele,” the AI replied, “And I will begin to conduct a deeper investigation into the unusual occurrences throughout the ship. Already I have noted a curiosity regarding your current sleeping spaces. The doors to both rooms have been opened and closed while you were inside the stoo konay.”

“What?” Conner gasped.

“I also note that I h
eard the sound of a rock chisel inside Conner’s room shortly before the door closed again,” it replied, “But again, there are no signs of other Ah Fidonay or your people.”

Conner
stared at Dawn, then looked down at the scythe in his hand. He quickly handed it to her, then retrieved two hatchets from the shelf beside him.

“We need to get down there and retrieve our weapons,” Conner stated, “Where did you put your MAC-11?”

“I hid it under my stack of clothing,” she said, following him out of the storage room and into the corridor.

“Mine is next to my bed.
I’d feel much better if we kept those with us from now on,” he said.