Peggy Sue (The T'aafhal Inheritance) (45 page)

“Aye aye, Sir,” JT replied, “What do we do with it?”

Open the unit, M’tak,
Jack commanded. “There will be an open storage bank waiting for you when you get there. Once we get the type 1 AM container installed we should be able to maneuver the ship.”
 

JT and Bear looked at each other. “You sure you’re all right, Captain?” asked Bear, peering closely at his friend and commander.

“Yes, gentlemen. The ship simply gave me the quick course for running a T’aafhal battle cruiser—a massive information download that will take some time to fully digest.”

“Is that why your eyes have turned violet?” asked Bear innocently.

“What!” Jack exclaimed.

“Just yanking your tail, Captain,” Bear said grinning, “making sure that a primate was in there and not a monkey-lizard.”

“Did I pass the test, Lieutenant?”

“That response was certainly human enough.” Bear sat down with a smile, pleased with himself. Jack gave him a half smile and turned to the others.

“Mr. Taylor, I want engines as soon as possible.”

“Aye aye, Sir,” JT replied before hustling off to install the large antimatter container.

“Mr. Bear, I think that it is safe enough in here to remove these suits. I want to get crewmembers positioned at the major control stations before things power up fully.”

“Yes, Sir,” Bear replied. “OK everyone, shed those suits! Last one stripped stacks the armor.”

Bridge, Peggy Sue

“Peggy Sue, M’tak Ka’fek, what is your status?”

“Waiting on news from you, Sir,” came Gretchen’s relieved reply. “We are detecting faint energy emissions from your new ship, are you capable of maneuvering yet?”

“We are working on bringing the engines online as we speak, Commander. This ship is amazing! Attempting this salvage was definitely the correct thing to do.”

“He is like a child with a shiny new toy,” said Ludmilla. She had come forward after making rounds in sick bay.

“I heard that, Doctor,” Jack’s disembodied voice replied. “And you are right. This is the biggest, shiniest toy I could have imagined. I have Bobby, Sandy, Aput and Mizuki going over the engineering and navigation consoles and all I hear is ‘cool’, ‘fantastic’, ‘no way’ and an occasional word of Japanese that I don’t understand.”

“We are glad you are all having such a splendid time, Captain,” Lcdr. Curtis commented dryly. In her heart she wished that she was onboard the alien battle cruiser with the Captain.

“Commander, you should see this!” called Jo Jo. From his console he was monitoring the alien ship from several angles using a pair of surveillance drones.

“What is it, Mr. Medina?”

“That big gash in her hull is half closed,” replied the excited engineer. Sure enough, the jagged puncture that marred the cruiser’s smooth hull was noticeably smaller than when first observed. “You can almost see it growing shut. It must have even better self-repair capabilities then the Peggy Sue.”

“Be advised,” said Peggy Sue’s computer. “I am downloading specifications for the repair nanites employed on the M’tak Ka’fek from the T’aafhal AI. They should be readily adaptable to my major systems and infrastructure.”

“Let’s go slow with the upgrades, Peggy Sue,” said a cautious Lcdr. Curtis. “If they can fix a ship they can probably sabotage it as well.”

“I will rigorously test them in isolation and get Chief Engineer Medina’s approval before puting them into general use, Commander.” Peggy Sue replied primly. “You might also wish to know that, through exchanges with the AI, I have been able to almost fully unlock the information stored in the artifact. Even without the alien cruiser, we will be returning to Earth with a treasure trove of technological information.”

“Another reason to stop fooling around and head back to home,” Gretchen muttered under her breath. She seldom disagreed with Jack’s decisions but assuming the captaincy of the alien warship smacked of hubris—or maybe she was just jealous that it was not her sitting in the alien captain’s chair.

King Lewnhallooshna’s Flagship

The fearful Commodore sent a subordinate to awaken the Great King precisely 30 minutes before the expected time of emergence into 3-space. Bonnahaamshna did not know which filled him with greater dread: the return of his sire to the bridge or the fact that the system they were about to emerge in had been avoided by most sentient races for millions of years.

According to the archives, the system ahead was the site of a fateful series of battles during the last great war. The combined fleets of the warm life Paladins and the minions of the Dark Lords clashed in battles that consumed thousands of ships on both sides. Those cataclysms left both sides gravely wounded and exhausted, unable to continue the war. Both sides returned to their home systems—in the case of the Paladins, never to venture forth again.

Not that the Dark Lords could claim victory. They too retired to their own icy home worlds to nurse their wounds and recover their strength. Only recently had the Dark Ones returned to assert their power over this corner of the galaxy. Now, given the ship the fleet pursued, the Paladins—the defenders of warm life—may also have returned. Regardless of what lay in the future, there were not so veiled hints in the archives that ships venturing into the system humans called Sirius were never seen again.

“Commodore!” bellowed the King, ascending his observation platform on the bridge. “Is all in readiness? I long to stick a spine into these warm vermin.”

“A few more minutes, great King,” replied Bonnahaamshna, respectfully dipping his spines, “and the game will be afoot.” For the large crystalline gastropods, that saying had multiple meanings, including allusions to devouring one’s prey.

“Excellent, Commodore, excellent!” King Lewnhallooshna enthused. “This time the engagement will be decisive, I feel it in my spines.”

“Yes, I am sure it will be, All Powerful Father,” said Bonnahaamshna, while thinking,
if the legends are true we may all be headed for destruction. But then, death by ancient rumor is much less certain than death by royal dissatisfaction.
 

Chapter 21

On Board the M’tak Ka’fek

“Captain, the egg is in place and the rack is closing,” called JT. He and his three Marines were still suited up, since the armor’s augmented strength made handling the 300 kilo fuel container easier. “Roger that, Mr. Taylor,” came the Captain’s reply. “Come forward to the bridge and let’s see if we can figure out how to sail this thing.”

All around the bridge, display panels were coming to life, aglow with reports and status indicators, all in the indecipherable script of the T’aafhal. The planetarium like dome surrounding the bridge increased in brightness as the positions of previously invisible objects were highlighted, each with accompanying annotation.

“Did you notice that?” said Bobby, sitting at the row of control stations directly behind and above the captain’s chair. “A lot of the distant objects changed position.”

“I wonder why it’s doing that?” Aput said, seated beside the main console.

For the first time, the Triad ambassador’s avatar spoke. “It would appear that the ship is calculating the true positions of things, correcting for observational delay; This vessel must have alter-space instruments that can effectively sense things faster than light; This vessel is advanced, indeed.”

“I did not realize that you had one of the pacifist philosophers on board your other ship, Captain,” said the ship’s AI.

“You know of the creatures we call the Triads, M’tak?” the Captain queried. Jack could swear that the AI’s tone of voice was distinctly unfriendly.

“I well remember the pusillanimous plants remaining neutral during the great struggles ages ago. Preferring to debate the meaning of the ‘Great Schism’ between lifeforms while many species fought each other to extinction.”

“We find your animosity interesting and disquieting; At the time of the Great Schism we had not yet germinated; You might find us a wiser race since the holocaust of 4 million years ago.”

Pacifism is an attempt to make cowardice virtuous by turning it into a religion; Trillions died while your ancestors looked on and did nothing; I trust not your words, philosopher plant, only your actions,
the M’tak transmitted to the Ambassador in its own language and form of communication.

Was I the only other person to hear that transmission?
Jack wondered privately. Glancing around the bridge he saw no one else show any sign of overhearing the sharp exchange between the ship and the Ambassador. Remaining silent he projected:
M’tak, we have more important matters at hand than 4 million year old disagreements.
 

Yes, Captain.
Came the curt mental reply. The AI turned its attention from NatHanGon’s avatar and finished reprogramming the display software. As a result the T’aafhal annotations were replaced by labels in the Latin alphabet.

“Look,” said Sandy. “Something new just popped up on the display.”

“The new objects appeared at the transfer point from Beta Hydri,” Bobby said excitedly, “and according to the display they will not be visible for 33 minutes.”

“How can it know they are there if light from the objects has not reached us yet?” asked a confused Mizuki. “The Ambassador must be right, the ship has some way to detect objects at distance, faster than light can travel.”

“No way!” said Bobby.

“Way!” said Aput, who had been studying all things alter-space with Dr. Saito and Dr. Gupta. “In theory, objects in 3-space can be sensed from alter-space. Dr. Saito thinks that large masses and gravitonic drives cause detectible distortions of space in the alternate dimensions.”

“Sort of like a submarine’s sonar can detect warships on the surface of the ocean?” said Bobby, struggling to find understanding in a familiar analogy.

“I don’t care how we are detecting them, Mr. Danner,” the Captain said. “Can you identify them? In particular, are they our attackers from Beta Hydri?”

“I can’t be sure, Captain, but there are thirteen of them, the same number as last time, and they seem to be headed right for us.”

“M’tak, can you identify the formation of ships that just entered the system?”

“They are not a design I am familiar with, Captain. But Mr. Danner is correct, they are headed this way.”

“We have to assume they are the hostiles that attacked us before,” Jack said. “Peggy Sue, M’tak Ka’fek. We have hostiles inbound. I repeat, we have hostiles inbound…”

Bridge, Peggy Sue

The Captain’s voice came over the comm from the alien battle cruiser: “…repeat, we have hostiles inbound.”

“Roger, M’tak Ka’fek, we read you,” replied Lcdr. Curtis. “Captain, we are showing nothing on our instruments.” Just the same, she ordered the shields raised and the crew to General Quarters. Over the blaring of the klaxon, Jack’s voice continued.

“That’s affirmative. Evidently the M’tak can sense things through alter-space at faster than light speeds—just don’t ask me how it works. In any case, it looks like the hostiles from Beta Hydri followed us through the transfer point.”

“Do you want us to move into the debris field to pick you up?”

“Negative, Commander. I want you to run for the transfer point to Earth at best possible speed.”

“Sir, we can’t just leave you on a dead ship,” Gretchen argued, almost pleading.

“Lcdr. Curtis, this is a direct order: You are appointed acting captain of the Peggy Sue and ordered to proceed directly to Earth. Your first priority is to deliver the intelligence gained on this mission to home base, along with the science staff and the Triad ambassador.

“Aye aye, Sir. We will proceed as ordered,” replied Gretchen, heading out of the CIC toward the bridge.

“Peggy Sue, do you understand as well?”

“Yes, Captain,” replied the ship’s computer. “Commander Curtis is acting captain.”

“Mr. Medina, I need engines now,” Gretchen called out, taking the captain’s chair. “Mr. Vincent, place us on a course for the Earth transit point, best possible speed. We will enter alter-space as soon as possible.”

“Aye aye, Ma’am,” both officers responded.

“My compliments, Mr. Medina, and have Doctors Gupta and Saito prepare the plasma torpedo countermeasures they have been working on.”

“Yes, Captain.”

For a second Gretchen paused, and then realized that those on the bridge had been monitoring the call from the Captain. Jo Jo’s reply was for her—she was now Peggy Sue’s commanding officer.
I hope the scientists’ anti-torpedo measures work, or my captaincy will be short and tragic.
 

King Lewnhallooshna’s Flagship

“Have we sighted the prey!” demanded King Lewnhallooshna, rattling his spines. Crew members around the flagship’s bridge cringed and buried themselves in the tasks before them, hoping to become invisible.