Author: Robert Wagner
Category: Other
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"A fair amount," Zayan answered. "Some of their planets, including their homeworld, were covered in my advanced classes."
"I've had some dealing with them as well," Sanford added. "Had to operate on a Ishalan once."
All of them turned to stare open mouthed at Sanford. Even Herra felt shocked.
"That is a story I would like to hear," said Chen.
Sanford gave her his soft, charming smile. "Maybe next time we get to port you buy me a drink and I'll share."
Chen clapped her hands together like a giddy school girl. Herra had to laugh inside at the smooth way Sanford simultaneously answered and deflected her probe. Without the imminent threat of death by space the crew seemed to let go of their pent up anxiety. Things were going from a high boil to a low one. Herra thought about having the crew evaluated by Sanford for stress related mental issues. She rejected the idea for now. It would have to wait until the more important job of fixing the ship and getting them permanently out of danger was done.
Herra finished up eating before she addressed the rest of the crew. "Once everyone is done eating we need to get to work. I, for one, don't plan on just turning over my ship to anyone to fix. Virgil and I will go back to the engine room, see if we can get power running and get off the emergency batteries. Chen, I want you and Zayan to go through the computer and find out if we have any information on the Ishalan or anything that might help us deal with them."
Sanford jumped into the conversation. "I don't have anything going on in doctor land right now. Could I give you and Virgil any help?"
"What do you know about ship systems?" Virgil asked, a little too harshly.
"About as much as you know about human systems I'm sure," Sanford retorted. "I do have two good hands. They are capable of fixing shattered bones and broken blood vessels. With your competent direction, I think I could help."
Herra thought this was a good idea. She wondered why she never thought of it before. "Besides, after losing the robot earler, we could use extra help. Welcome to the engineering team, Sanford."
"Damned thermal regulator, it fried as well. For wyrm's sake," Virgil grumbled, yanking the black, tablet sized box out of the opening in the floor. He threw it across the engine room. It thudded against the silver and grey wall and dropped to the floor, still intact.
The engine room of the Dauntless was about eighteen feet deep and twelve feet wide. The floor was all grating, broken into removable squares for easy access. Pipes and tubing also jutted out of the floor and ran along the walls. At one time it gleamed silver. but now it was dull and dirty.
They had been at this for about an hour and Virgil was beyond his tolerance point. Tiredness, bordering on weary, weighted him down and he still felt hungry. On the way over to pick up the regulator Virgil glanced at both Herra and Sanford. Both awkwardly ignoring his tantrum. Annoyingly, Sanford had been good at the first two simple tasks Virgil had given him. He now worked on his third task and it chaffed Virgil even more that he hadn't heard one complaint out of the man. Herra, on the other hand, had one outburst when the current modulator gave her a jolt as she reattached some burned out wiring to it.
Why does she have to push so hard? Virgil wondered. They could do these repairs faster with the access to better equipment and machinery. Which they would have once they got to the Ishalan space station. Why the rush?
Sure, it was nice that the three of them had gotten the ship running on auxiliary power now instead of battery backup. That got them the lights back on, engines could run at a quarter of their power. Well engine as the case was right now. Along with that they could also have minimal shields and sensors. Chen was almost assuredly enjoying the faster computer processing now available. Overall though what did that matter, since they were being towed anyway. Was Herra expecting something to happen? Virgil would have thought with all that had happened since the alien ship, Herra would have learned to open up more. Share some of her decision making with the rest of them.
The regulator back in hand, Virgil trotted back over to where Herra worked on her hands and knees, reaching down into the Dauntless' systems core. He assumed the same position beside her. A large grey coolant tube separated the two of them.
He decided he would asked her about what they had seen after coming through the wormhole. Something none of them hadn't really discussed. Maybe that's what had her flight suit up her ass. "Herra. What do you think was the deal with that debris field we arrived in? Do you think the Ishalan were fighting each other? Or maybe they were fighting one of the alien ships we just discovered?"
Herra worked away quietly next to him. He figured she was just going to give him the silent treatment again. He had pried open the regulator and was about to get up to get some more new wiring out of the repair box when she started talking. He laid back down like he was afraid to spook her.
"It could have been. I don't know much about the Ishalanians but since Earth has never been in a conflict with them they don't seem like the aggressive, war like type."
"No, that's us." Sanford chimed in from the wall access panel he was currently leaned into.
Virgil ignored him. "Maybe they're always to busy fighting each other."
Herra sat up and looked over at Virgil. He did the same, meeting her gaze.
"And I thought I didn't know much about them," Herra said. She had peeled off her flight suit before coming into the engine room. Her long sleeve white top was cover in grime along with her face. She looked annoyed at him. "What do you want to know Virgil? Stop skimming the surface, man. Just dive in."
That made Virgil annoyed with her. His lip sneered sideways. "Why are we doing this?"
Herra made an exaggerated huff, which blew up some of her black hair off her forehead that had gotten lose of her ponytail. "Didn't I already talk about this with you? What is it with you Virgil and your circular questioning? Should Sanford look at your ears for you?"
"Hey! Don't talk to me like I'm a child. If you would just give it to me straight the first time I wouldn't have to ask again and again. You are pushing way too hard and I want to know why. It has to be more than not wanting strangers to fix your ship."
Herra looked flushed with anger. Maybe this wasn't the time he should have pushed it. Damn it though he was just as tired, no more, than she was. Hadn't he done so much for her? Didn't he deserve more respect?
"We're in danger!" Herra hissed. "Haven't you realized that Virgil? Just because an Ishalan ship right is towing us now doesn't mean we are out of it. That floating graveyard of ship parts should have crystallized that for you. I do not want to be vulnerable! There are you happy now? Get your lazy ass back to work now."
Her rant over, Herra dropped back down out of Virgil's sight. Virgil pursed his lips into a pout. "I'm not stupid or lazy," he muttered under his breath. Was that what she really thought of me? Virgil wasn't sure as he had never in his years seen her so angry. At times she could give Sanford a run for his money in being calm and collected. Too bad Dido had been destroyed. It'd be easier to work with it than these two.
"I'm going to need to go look over the flow regulators throughout the ship," Virgil announced, standing. "Once you two finish up I think that's all we can do for now."
Virgil turned and left before either of them could say another word.
"So I discovered, by matching up the mid range scans with the star charts, that we are in the Deposnia system." Chen was tracing the chart she had pulled up on her screen with one slender finger.
The tractor beam light spread out and diffused itself among the cabin. It made Chen's finger look like they were covered in ice. She thought it was beautiful.
"Where does that put us?" asked Zayan.
Chen zoomed out the map and colored the star of the system they were in red. "We are here in this system and the nearest system that belongs to Earth is the one I have made green." She punctuated this by stabbing a finger at both. "The Albiano system."
"That seems far away."
"Twenty
three light years. I don't know how many wormhole jumps that would be, since we don't have a map of the Ishalan's wormhole web." Chen wondered if she could get one from the station ahead. Their alien culture was something she had never gotten a chance to study. So like Herra, her understanding of them was vague and unsatisfying. Excitement filled her at the though of getting a chance to rectify that first hand.
"It is amazing how fast you were able to calculate and pull up that data. You must have gone to fine schools to learn so much."
Zayan's compliment made her blush. "Yes, the best on Brahe. My parents spared no expense on me. I was something of a child genius. I got my first chemistry set at seven. At ten I could do high school level physics problems. I was always at the top of my classes and graduated college in two years."
"That must have been nice; Having parents, having anything you could want." Zayan sounded like he was jealous and resentful. She wondered why that was. She didn't know much about him yet, with him being new to the crew. She was still trying to get Sanford to open up more."You must have been very loved. A quiet, proper daughter with so many accomplishments."
Chen gave a little chirp of a laugh. "My parents were very busy and very successful business leaders. They only noticed me when I wasn't quiet or proper. My nanny really liked me though. Not just because she got paid to either. My sister and I could really get into mischief growing up."
Zayan scoffed like he didn't believe her.
"No, really." Chen found herself getting defensive. Which was ridiculous. After college she grew to not care at all what people thought of her. Especially her parents. If she still talked to them she imagined they would be mortified to learn what she had done for the last few years. This job on the Dauntless, without a doubt they would think it far beneath her. For her, the distance had been just what she needed. Sure it wasn't the most challenging for her, well until today it wasn't. She brushed her hand over her leg wound absently.
"Sorry, but I just can't see that girl in you," Zayan smiled.
"I'm not a girl anymore," Chen huffed. "I'm a woman now. A mature woman, who doesn't need you to see anything in me. We should get back to work. Herra has given us a task to do. Even though we haven't heard an update, we can see they are working and getting results. We need to do the same." She felt irritated at him and surprised with herself. Usually it was other people she got to open up to her. Nor the other way around. No one paid that much attention to polite, withdrawn Hui Chen. That was the way she liked it. She liked to look at the future. The past, it couldn't be changed.
"You are right, of course. We should be working. Once again I am amazed at my good fortune. I know some things about the Ishalan from my time in school. To get to see them up close and in person, oh what a treat."
"Too bad the probe got destroyed," Chen said, straightening up. She was back to all business now. "It would be nice to have until long range sensors are back up."
"Too bad the ship almost was destroyed,"Zayan countered. "Still the computer systems seems intact. What can we pull up about the Ishala or this world?"
The star charts disappeared from the display screen. Chen typed in a few commands and waited for the computer to respond. She stared at the black reflection of her and Zayan. She looked ragged. Her slicked back hair was standing up in places. Her eyes felt suddenly heavy. Behind her Zayan was smiling, the white of his teeth a stark contrast to the black of the screen. She reached up to fix her hair. The screen popped with words and images of the Ishala people.
Chen began reading only to jump nearly out of her seat when the headset next to the flight chair crackled to life. Looking over at it Chen could see outside the window. They were coming up on the space station now. It hovered above a planet of vast blue seas with a few large areas of brownish land. The station itself looked like a square with two triangles attached to it, one at each end. It was a uniform, solid gray block of metal in space. Functional but with no sense of style.
Very faintly, Chen could hear a voice coming through the headset.
"Go ahead and answer them," Zayan said.
Chen's mouth twisted as did her body to face Zayan. "No. I can't do that. It would be improper. I am not the Commander." She reached up and flipped on the Dauntless comm system. "Herra, you're needed on the bridge. We've arrived."
Herra clumped into the bridge in a mood most foul. She saw Zayan's eternal smile fade as he stepped back out of her way. Flopping down into the flight seat, Herra wrangled the headset on.
"This is Herra. How can I help you?" She said through the gritted teeth of a forced smile. She could see looming up ahead the Ishalan space station.
It was good that they were here, although she wasn't ready. The Dauntless wasn't ready.
"My sector governor has informed me you are allowed on the station Sunskipper, but are not allowed to go down to the planet. We will assist in repairing your ship. On one condition."
Herra was taken aback. While she didn't expect anything for free, why wouldn't the Ishalan just take credits. What did they want?
"You have my attention..." Herra hoped for a name.
"I am fleet commander Kohora." The Ishalan said, not sounding happy to divulge even that. "We want all information about the aliens that attacked you."
It took every measure of self control not to look shocked and surprised by the request. She was able to keep her face neutral. How the Ishalan knew they'd been attacked by unknown aliens was a mystery. That information was worth more than her ship. It was close to priceless. She was going to sell it to the highest bidder but she had only considered those companies back in Earth systems. The Earth's governments wouldn't be to keen on her giving the information to Ishalan, especially before they got their hands on it.
"We lost power and got smashed by a rogue asteroid," Herra lied straight faced. "What are you saying? That you've had contact with a new alien species?"
The blue light died as the tractor beam cut off. The Dauntless continued floating on towards the planet. The Ishalan, Kohora, was still online. His snout like mouth seemed to smile.
"It looks as if our tractor beam has lost power due to a malfunction. I hope we can have it repaired before you hit our planet's atmosphere." Kohora spoke off handed, without a trace of malice.
This time Herra couldn't hold back her shock. "Wait now. You can't do that. You'd be breaking laws or treaties or something if you did."
"How would anyone know? You are not allowed in our space."
Herra cut off communication, ripping the headset off. Dauntless passed the space station. The planet beyond loomed closer. She sprung out of the flight chair and whirled on her crew.
"You two have any information for me? Because I feel this is not Ishalan like."
"From what I remember studying in college, it is," Zayan said. It was easy to read the panic on his face. "As far as we know they have no internal strife for a long time. They have always seemed straightforward in dealing with Earth. This seems very irregular."
"Maybe they're scared," added Chen. "What if that floating debris we jumped into were their ships, destroyed by the same aliens that almost destroyed us?"
It was a solid theory, one that Herra had also suspected and it frightened her. They had jumped from a system that had the strange aliens occupying it, to this one. On the back of a wyrm, yes, but still maybe they were once connected by a previous wormhole? One thing, out of all the wondrous things she had seen today, that she still couldn't believe was that any civilization had the power to destroy a wormhole. Even if they did, why would they want to? Now was not the time for that kind of speculation.
"My quick scans of the planet show a thick atmosphere and that it is sparsely populated." Zayan reported.
Which to Herra meant that the Ishalan wouldn't be too upset if not all of the Dauntless burnt up before hitting the ground. She sat back down and slapped on the comm.
"Virgil! Sanford! I need to start the engine."
"Can you at least wait until we are out of t
he room. I'd like to not get burned, zapped, or maybe even vaporized," Virgil cam back, sounding exasperated. Herra was thankful he didn't ask for a long explanation why.
"Let me know when you're clear. I'd advise you not to take too long."
"We just need to reattach one last set of cables. Five minutes tops."
Herra looked out the viewscreen filled with gray and white billowing clouds broken by brown. "You've got maybe three. Unless instead of burned, you'd like to be totally incinerated."
Virgil sounded unfazed. "You better let me get back to work then."
While she stole glances at the planet rushing up to say hello, Herra went through the preflight checklist in her head. Besides her locked jaw and gritted teeth she stayed calm, which she thought was an accomplishment. After she had done every step and primed the engine her finger hover oven the ignition button on her console.
"Hull temperatures are starting to rise, Commander," Chen informed her. She sounded shaky. "We've made contact with the exosphere."
Herra's finger was centimeters from touching the button. They were just about at the point that she wasn't sure if they could pull up since they only had one engine. She didn't realize until now that she didn't get from Zayan what the gravity was like on the planet.
"Virgil, it's now or roast!" Herra was not able to control her voice. It cracked with her rising anxiety.
"Go! We just sealed the door!"
Herra jabbed. At first there was a whine. The Dauntless shivered like a dog throwing off water. Her board went from green to orange then red. Herra's fingers flew as she adjusted intakes, flushed ports, and reset systems. She began to sweat but not just from the heat increase in the cabin. She slapped the button again.
With another whine and a jolt the engine coughed back to life. Herra eased the thrusters up, not wanting to rip the Dauntless apart. The ground below became distinct, its features more clear. Now that her console had full power she could read the altimeter, speed, and all the readouts. They all told her the same thing., they were in trouble. They weren't going to make it.