Riding on Whispers (the Wolfegang series Book 3) (12 page)

“Just like everything else – a little bit at a time.” Ricky sipped at his own tea, his leg crossed at the ankle.

I peered at him. “Are you going to be staying?”

There was a twinkle in his eyes, like he thought he was so funny. “For a little while.”

I shook my head, but couldn’t keep from smiling back. I grabbed the tablet on my nightstand and opened it back up to my search results. My eyes closed, and I was asleep before I even started reading. An alien watched over me while I slept.

By the next day I was sick of being in bed and feeling handicapped. So I took it upon myself to shower and get dressed. Then I headed down to the engine room with the crystal manual and the record player Ricky had given me.

I heaved the heavy door open and stepped into the room. The lights were set to dim and it was just me in there with the hum of power. There was a hatch in the floor that I was careful to step around, and then I put the manual on the worktable with the record player. That hatch had piqued my curiosity ever since I first saw it. Now that I was here alone, maybe I could take a quick look.

Glancing around to make sure I was alone, I knelt on the floor and turned the lever on the hatch. I’d wanted to know what the engine looked like since the first time I’d been in that room. The metal groaned as I heaved it up and the interior below glowed with an iridescent blue. Quickly, before I could change my mind, my feet went in and found the ladder. Each step took me forever since I had to feel around before I put the rest of my weight on the rung.

About halfway down I stumbled, the ball of my foot sliding right off the metal rung and I fell. My hands clenched involuntarily, but the pipes slid right through my fingers. I felt the drop in the pit of my stomach and hit the bottom before I could even get the breath to scream.

I sat on the floor for a second to catch my breath. Well. Sliding was definitely a faster way to get down, and it wasn’t all that far. Maybe I could do it on purpose next time. I stood up and took a look around.

The room was so incredibly huge I could barely comprehend what I was seeing. There was a noise that sounded like a helicopter, heavy and thumping. I could feel the pressure of it against my skin and the weight of it on my chest. My eyes adjusted and I could see what was making the noise.

Three separate engines filled the space. The engines themselves were underneath the cargo hold and the crystal room. They were cylindrical, and roughly eight feet long with a six foot diameter, and they spun with an almost soothing
thump-thump
. The engines glowed with that iridescent blue, lighting up the entire engine room just enough so that I could see without any other light.

I felt tiny next to them.

There were different shades of light - from the different crystals, I assumed. I itched to sit there and look through everything, figure out how it worked and why, where certain crystals went and what they did exactly, but I held back. I couldn’t do that on my own; something would probably explode. I’d have to ask someone to show me how it worked and what I could mess with while we still traveled in space.

I took one last, longing look before I climbed back up the ladder and into the crystal workroom. Carefully, I closed the hatch and the thumping noise softened until it was part of the background, as it always was.

The manual was still on the table where I left it. I didn’t need Wolfe’s help to do this. Crossing the room and I opened the manual to a random page, I glanced through the sketches and instructions until I found what I was looking for. It would be like learning a new recipe, or a new language. I just hoped my experiment would work.

The gloves I used last time with Wolfe still sat on the table. They looked forgotten. I mentally slapped myself out of my weird mood. Something was bothering me, and affecting my thoughts. I didn’t know exactly why I felt that way, but it’s why I was there: to try and distract myself out of it. I didn’t like feeling on edge.

The gloves slipped over my hands, fitting just as perfectly as they had the first time. I flipped through the pages until I found something close to what I needed. Then I crouched down and rummaged under the worktable for some blank crystals, preferably uncut, something easy to work with. Reds and greens were simple, purple a little harder, and black the hardest.

The risk of blowing something up increased in proportion to the darkness of the crystals. The darker they were, the more power they held. The bright, blue crystals had a whole set of rules unto themselves. I managed to find a box of clear, uncut crystals. Clear crystals could be used for almost anything, but they didn’t add power, only twisted the power that went through them according to the inscribed commands.

I sat cross-legged on the ground and pulled the manual down and into my lap so I could look through the boxes and match the crystals to what the manual said to use. I flipped the pages until I found the section on clear crystals. I needed to find one that I could cut into slides and then program. Make it do something simple, like play music.

I bent down to get a closer look at the delicate notes in the manual and pushed my curly, unruly mess of hair out of my face. My hair always managed to get in the way, enough that I constantly thought about cutting it all off. I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. For some weird reason I felt like if I cut it off, I would lose all contact with my past. One more change that might tip the scale and I would lose my mind.

A strand fell in my face as I shook my head. I pushed the thoughts away along with my hair and took a small, cloudy crystal out of the box. I needed something clearer. Placing the cloudy one back, I picked up a rock that could be promising, if I cut it correctly. The ugly rock surrounded most of the outside, but there was a small piece chipped away that showed a clear crystal on the inside. I hoped the rock didn’t have veins in the actual crystal part.

I pulled myself up and swiped my hand over the table. The holograms stuttered into being and the light from them shone brightly. I put the rock above the circle and it stayed fixed in place. I tapped an icon and the laser cutter powered up. I took a pair of goggles from a drawer and placed them carefully over my eyes. The manual said there could be sparks when you cut a raw crystal. I held the tool carefully with both hands and sliced the rock in half. The two sides separated and continued to hover over the table. I lifted up my goggles as I picked up one half to get a better look. The crystal inside was so clear I could see through to the outer crust.

I smiled and shoved my goggles back on. I repositioned one half of the crystal and cut the outside rock off in a hexagonal shape. When there was no rock left on the crystal, I sliced it horizontally like I would onions or tomatoes. When that was done I wiped off the crystal slices with a special velvet cloth, leaving no dust or residue. All the crystal dust collected under the table in a small cache while I was working.

Briefly, I wondered if I could use the dust for something, but then focused back on my experiment. I swiped the setting to one for working on delicate slices and took out the diamond inscriber. I wrote a simple inscription for amplification, another for sound, and then the hardest part - to have it read music, and the command to play.

I took the case off the record player and placed the crystal in one of the empty slots I’d noticed the last time I was working on it. The crystal I placed in the record player was a conduit for power in this particular set-up. The electricity would run through the single crystal card I’d made, and then the machine would do what it was commanded to by my inscriptions.

The final moment of truth; I flipped the switch and the music that played throughout the room bounced off the walls sweetly. I smiled a genuine, happy smile. The first time I could remember doing so in a long time. The violin strings were so pure, the sad wailing clearer than anything I’d ever heard. The amplifier I’d added also remastered the sound.

“Classical music is not something everyone can enjoy,” Wolfe told me.

I spun around in shock, angry that my moment was taken away. I wanted to be alone, not invaded every five seconds because Wolfe felt like stalking me. I mentally chided myself; it was his ship. He wasn’t trying to spy on me. The man had brought me a damn flower for chrissake. I needed to relax.

“You catch on quickly,” Wolfe said. His hands were clasped behind his back. “Soon you’ll be running this ship all on your own.”

I lifted the goggles from my face and let them rest on the top of my head. They held my hair back quite effectively. Maybe I should wear them more often. “Not my intention, sir. I like following and contributing.” I wasn’t sure if I should take off the gloves, so I kept them on. I wrung my hands, not sure what was going on, or why he was there. Even after all our encounters, I still wasn’t sure how to act around him.

Wolfe’s hands were in his pockets, and he looked at the floor. “You have natural leadership. Ricky doesn’t take to just anyone. I don’t know much about your past, but I’m impressed at who you are now.” He looked at me then and shrugged. “You have almost nothing to go off of with that note from your brother, but you’re still determined to find him. You could have galaxies to scour for him, and it doesn’t seem to faze you at all.” He shook his head with a rueful smile. “I’m jealous of the kind of loyalty you have for your brother.”

I frowned. “Sir, you do have that kind of loyalty. From your crew,” I told him, not understanding why he was jealous.

He looked away, and when he spoke, he didn’t respond to my statement. “If you get a break, I’ll be in my office. I hoped you might have time to take a look at the map today.”

Before I could say anything else he was gone, which was weird. He looked worn; whatever was on that map was taking a lot out of him. Wolfe probably wasn’t even aware of it. Maybe I should check on him; I could go see him in his office and find out exactly what was going on.

I turned off the music and put everything away. It was time for me to take a look at this stupid map. The faster it was deciphered, the faster Wolfe would go back to normal. I took the shortcut and went up the ladder to the hallway above. The captain’s office door was closed. I knocked quickly and waited for a response.

Wolfe opened the door. “I was hoping to see you,” he said.

“You asked me to.” I stepped inside and the door closed behind us. “I wanted to finally get a look at this map,” I said.

I stood in the middle of his office and saw how messy it had become. He had items and recycled papers strewn everywhere and on every surface in the room. There were empty cups sitting around and dishes from when he’d eaten. It was utter chaos.

“It’s all laid out for you,” Wolfe said. “Would you like something to drink?”

I had no idea where to begin. “Coffee, if it’s available. If not, then just water. Thank you.”

He motioned for me to sit on the couch. The table in front of it was covered with Wolfe’s notes and references spread all over it in a giant mess I could appreciate.

“I’ll get you a cup.” He gestured to the clutter and said, “That is what I’ve been working on, but here is the map.” He carefully placed a very old, weathered, and stained piece of paper on the table atop the books.

I took a seat and picked up the parchment very carefully; glad that I’d kept the gloves on. There were designs and words all over it. There was only one place it showed: a country with a city, and a picture I couldn’t quite make out. Nothing on the map was actually labeled.

“Do you know where this country or province is?” I asked, as Wolfe moved around getting the coffee ready.

He brought the cup of steaming goodness over and took another look. He’d made my coffee right, not needing to ask me. It surprised me that he remembered how I took it.

“I do not,” he answered.

I took a sip without saying anything and focused on the matter at hand. I pointed to the picture next to the city. “Do you know what this is?”

Wolfe sat on the chair next to me and started flipping through some of his books. “Yes, that symbol is the artifact that we’re looking for. It’s supposed to be made out of solid gold - a small statue of a deity.” He found what he was looking for and turned the book so I could see.

Now that Wolfe was closer I could see the scruff on his cheeks, the black hair glistening in the soft light of his office. I dragged my attention back to the book.

There was the same symbol, but half of it wasn’t in English. It wasn’t anything I recognized either. “Do you know what language this is?”