Ep.#3.6 - Evolution , page 7
Kayci was crouched down behind the copilot’s seat, watching in horror as Nathan battled the last two boarders in the corridor outside the cockpit
“Where’s Nathan?” Jessica called over Kayci’s comm-set.
“In the corridor,” Kayci replied. “He’s fighting them.”
“Then you’ve got to jump the ship, Doc.”
“What? I don’t know how!”
“Go to the pilot’s seat,” Jessica instructed. “The one on the left.”
Kayci started to rise but ducked back down again at the sound of clanking swords.
“Hurry, Doc!” Jessica urged as the ship shook from incoming weapons fire. “We’re running out of time!”
“Oh God,” Kayci said as she moved over to the pilot’s seat. “What do I do?”
“Find the console that says Jump Nav Com,” Jessica instructed.
Kayci searched for the console.
“It should be in the center, or maybe the center pedestal.”
“You don’t know?”
“It’ll have a display with a lot of numbers on it. Range settings, course data, speed, that kind of stuff.”
Kayci looked down at the center pedestal, spotting something that fit the description just below the throttles. “I think I found it.”
“Find the jump button and push it!” Jessica urged. “Hurry!”
“You have to push it and hold it for at least three seconds!” Vladimir added.
“Don’t I have to enter something first?” Kayci asked, afraid to do something wrong.
“Just push the damned button!” Jessica yelled.
Kayci looked over the console but didn’t find a button labeled ‘jump’. “There is no ‘jump’ button, only an ‘execute’ button.”
“PUSH THAT!”
Kayci did so, holding it in. The cockpit flashed blue-white, then flashed again. Kayci removed her finger and looked around. The incoming weapons fire had ceased, as had the clanking of swords. “I did it!” She exclaimed. “I think.”
“Great! Now go help Nathan! I’m on my way!” Jessica replied.
Kayci turned to get out of her seat, unsure of how she was going to be of any help in a sword fight. She stopped, breathless as she spotted Nathan standing in the hatchway, blood covering the front of him, spurting from several wounds on his chest and shoulder. “Oh my God. Are you alright?”
“I’ve been better,” Nathan admitted, stumbling forward into the cockpit and practically falling into one of the side station seats.
Josh immediately jumped in pursuit of the Traverna, but when he came out of the jump, there were no contacts. “What the hell? Sweetie, are you sure of the range?”
“The Traverna should be here,” his AI insisted.
Two more icons appeared, then several others as the rest of the Dragons joined him.
“Where are they?” Talisha asked over comms.
“I don’t know,” Josh replied. “But they sure as hell ain’t here.” He thought for a moment. “Search pattern Delta Three, starting back at the last engagement area. Slider left, Kusya right. I’ll go up center. Let’s go, people. We’ve gotta find them before the bad guys do.”
“Speaking of,” his AI said. “One heavy, directly astern. Ten kilometers and closing.”
“Everyone, one light year forward, then we double-back.”
“Dragons report they’ve lost the Traverna,” Sima announced from the Aurora’s comms station.
“What?” Aiden exclaimed. “When you say lost…”
“They have lost contact,” Sima explained. “It jumped, and they followed, based on her jump energy signature, but she wasn’t where they expected. They’ve started a search pattern.”
“Whoever was attacking will be searching as well,” Kit pointed out.
“Lieutenant, split your team between the Seiiki and the Mirai,” Aiden instructed. “And come loaded for bear.”
“You got it,” Kit agreed, turning to exit.
“Loki, you take the Seiiki, Erica will take the Mirai.”
“I will?” Erica said.
“Would you rather stay here and take the conn?” Aiden asked.
“I’ll take the Mirai,” Erica agreed, also heading out.
“We’ll find them,” Loki promised before following Erica out.
Aiden sighed, turning to Sima. “Contact Captain Taylor. Update her on the situation and tell her we need shuttles and pilots.”
CHAPTER THREE
“What happened to you?” Vladimir asked after stepping into the Traverna’s cockpit.
“Men with swords,” Nathan explained while Doctor Barra did her best to patch him up with the cargo ship’s meager medical supplies.
Vladimir looked at Jessica, then back at Nathan. “Guess you need more training.”
Nathan just glared at him.
“We have a problem,” Vladimir said.
“Ya think?”
“No, I mean a big problem. We’re leaking air,” Vladimir explained. “Lots of it.”
“Can you fix it?” Jessica asked.
“Not before we suffocate,” Vladimir replied. “We’re leaking in at least five places I’ve identified so far, and the pressure shields on the breach boxes are battery-powered, so they won’t last long.”
“How long?” Nathan asked.
“Minutes? Hours? I have no way of knowing,” Vladimir admitted. “We need to get off this ship.”
Nathan sighed, rising.
“I’m not finished yet,” Doctor Barra warned.
Nathan ignored her, going to the pilot’s seat and punching in some commands on the center console. “Can we jump again?” he asked Vladimir.
“Da.”
“How far?”
“This ship is a series-jumper, so we can make ten-light year jumps indefinitely.”
“We only need to make three,” Nathan said, pointing at the navigational display. “That will put us within escape pod range of the Nishida system.”
“What’s there?” Jessica asked.
“As far as I know, nothing. But this thing shows that the fourth and fifth planets are habitable,” Nathan explained.
“Are there any settlements there?” Kayci asked.
“Not according to these charts,” Nathan replied. “But we don’t know how up-to-date they are. But if it’s classified as habitable, that means it has breathable air and liquid water.”
“But we’d be stranded,” Kayci pointed out.
“Better than being dead,” Jessica opined.
“Maybe we can seal ourselves up in one compartment to buy us time to fix the ship?” Kayci suggested.
“I can’t fix this ship without the Aurora,” Vladimir told her.
“But they’ll come looking for us, right?”
“Yes, they will,” Nathan assured her.
“About that,” Vladimir said. “I sort of masked our jump.”
Nathan looked at him. “Huh?”
“I masked our real jump with a fake one. Anyone analyzing our jump flash will only see the fake one, so they’ll be looking in the wrong place.”
“But sooner or later, they will find us,” Jessica stated. “They know our heading, so…”
“Yes, eventually someone will find us,” Nathan agreed. “The question is, who?”
“We have two escape pods,” Jessica stated.
“So?” Nathan asked, not sure where she was heading.
“So, we cold-launch the one we’re in, and hot-launch the empty one. With any luck, they won’t even detect the cold-launched pod.”
“Assuming they find us,” Kayci said.
“They’ll find us,” Nathan insisted.
“How can you be sure?”
“Those weren’t pirates,” Nathan explained. “They were too well trained, and too well equipped.”
“And they came back after getting their butts kicked once before,” Jessica added. “They were after something, and I’m betting it’s that girl in cold-storage back there.”
“That was my thought, as well,” Nathan agreed.
“If we’re evacuating, we’re going to have to wake her up,” Doctor Barra warned.
“How long will that take?” Nathan asked.
“Not long, but don’t forget, we still don’t know what’s wrong with her.”
“What makes you think something is wrong with her?” Vladimir asked.
“She’s in medical SA,” Kayci reminded him.
“So, she might have some deadly disease, or something?” Jessica asked.
“If that were the case, I would expect that information to be in the SA unit’s medical logs, or at least have a warning placard on the outside,” Kayci explained. “But there’s nothing.”
“So, if we wake her, we could be exposing ourselves to some deadly pathogen,” Nathan stated.
“I don’t believe that to be the case,” Doctor Barra stated. “There doesn’t appear to be anything wrong with her, at least not that I can detect.”
“But all her metabolic functions are greatly slowed in SA, right?” Jessica clarified.
“Yes, but not completely halted. I can’t be certain, of course, but if she did have some disease, there would be at least some minor abnormalities in her scans. And she has none. I mean, her scans are so perfect that they’re hard to believe.”
“But if she does have a contagious disease, we’d be exposing the entire planet to it,” Jessica pointed out.
“But if I’m right, and she doesn’t have any disease, and we don’t wake her and bring her with us, she’ll die.”
“More likely, she’ll end up in the hands of the guys who just attacked us,” Jessica argued.
“Actually, she will die,” Vladimir corrected. “She’s running on batteries, remember? And I don’t have a way to connect her to the ship’s power grid, not without the Aurora’s fabricators.”
Nathan sighed. “Wake her, doc. I’ll start plotting the jumps.”
“Just so you know, there’s a slim chance that just waking her could kill her.”
“I thought you said you couldn’t find anything wrong with her?”
“I can’t,” Kayci agreed, “but that doesn’t mean there isn’t anything wrong with her.”
“Well, not much choice, I suppose.”
“Vlad, move all the survival supplies from one pod into the pod we’ll be taking,” Nathan instructed. “There’s no telling what kind of conditions we’ll be facing.”
“I’ll take care of it,” Vladimir promised.
“Jess…”
“Round up all weapons and personal shields from the dead guys,” Jessica said for him.
“After that, search the ship for anything that might be of help to us. Cargo areas, crew quarters, everywhere.”
“How long do we have?” Jessica asked.
“I can complete three jumps in a few minutes,” Nathan replied. “So as soon as Doctor Barra has our mystery lady awake, we should go.”
“I’m on it,” Jessica promised, heading out at once.
Nathan turned back to the navigation console to begin plotting the first jump. After a moment, he realized that Kayci was still standing behind him. He turned to her. “Something on your mind, Doc?”
“Is it always this wild?”
“If you’re talking about life aboard the Aurora, then this is actually fairly calm.”
“Not the answer I was hoping for,” Kayci said, turning to exit.
“Not the answer I wanted to give, either,” Nathan said to himself.
* * *
“You made the right call,” Cameron assured Aiden over vid-comm. “The Aurora is the base of operations, and when they locate the Traverna, there is a good chance they’re going to need her for the rescue. Better to lick your wounds and prepare for the next engagement, and let your Dragons and shuttles do the searching.”
“Yeah, but it’s a lot harder than I thought it would be,” Aiden admitted.
“It doesn’t get any easier.”
“Not the answer I was hoping for.”
“I’ll send all our shuttles and pilots to help with the search. Would you like me to send engineers as well?”
“Our damage isn’t that bad,” Aiden replied. “We can handle the repairs.”
“Well, don’t be afraid to ask the Norleandar to come to your aid if needed. They’re only a few jumps away.”
“I know.”
“The shuttles should be there in about a day and a half,” Cameron told him. “Until then, try to use your recon drones as much as possible, and don’t let your Dragon pilots wear themselves out. They’ll fly twenty-four seven if you let them, especially Josh.”
“Yeah, I’ve already ordered them to fly twelve-hour rotations.”
“Twelves? That’s not too much?”
“I was asking for eights, but Josh insisted on around-the-clock patrols, taking a few hours off whenever a ship needed to recycle,” Aiden explained. “Did you know that they catnap in their fighters during patrols?”
“I heard something about that, yes,” Cameron replied.
“Anyway, Aurora’s coordinating the search to maximize efficiency, and each Dragon is flying with two recon drones that are constantly jumping around them to widen their search ranges, so that should help.”
“Once the shuttles reach you, we should start searching habitable planets and moons that would be in range of the Traverna’s escape pods. You might want to check with her Captain about their range.”
“I did. She doesn’t know. Her engineer is in and out, so as soon as Doctor Chen says it’s safe, she’s going to give him something to wake him up long enough for us to interrogate him.”
“Interrogate him?” Cameron asked.
“Pirates don’t come back and try again after getting shut down. Someone wanted whatever was on that ship, and I have a sneaking suspicion it had something to do with that girl in SA they found.”
“What girl in SA?” Cameron inquired.
“Nathan didn’t tell you?”
“No, he didn’t.”
“They were carrying a young woman in a medical SA pod, tucked in under their main reactor to hide her from sensors. The captain didn’t know anything about her, and neither did her engineer.”
“Could either of them be lying?”
“If they are, we’ll find out.”
“Has Laza assessed the damage to the Traverna?” Cameron asked.
“Yes. She thinks it’s minimal. They were able to jump, so we know they still have main power, even if they don’t have maneuvering or main propulsion. She’s still studying the scans just in case she missed something.”
“Well, we’ll find them,” Cameron assured him.
“We should have already found them,” Aiden insisted.
* * *
Nathan entered the bay outside the reactor room where Vladimir had repositioned the medical SA pod. “How’s it going?” he asked Doctor Barra as he entered.
“Aren’t you supposed to be in the cockpit?”
“I’ve already completed all three jumps, so there’s nothing left for me to do up there,” Nathan replied. “How much longer until she’s awake?”
“A few minutes, I think,” Kayci answered.
“You think?”
“This pod is like nothing I’ve ever seen. In fact, I think it’s a prototype.”
“What makes you say that?” Nathan asked.
“Regardless of who built them, SA pods are a collection of components built by a variety of companies. The average medical SA pod is assembled from components from over three hundred different manufacturers.”
“They teach you that in med-school?”
“Actually, my son told me that.”
“Isn’t he like six?”
“Only in years,” Kayci quipped. “Anyway, this pod’s components don’t have any manufacturer markings. Best I can tell, every component is fabricated from scratch.”
“And that is meaningful, why?” Nathan wondered.
“Only a handful of companies have that kind of fabrication capability. The big ones, like SilTek, Annapolaris, and Gangess.”
“So, you think this pod was stolen?”
“That would explain why someone came after it, wouldn’t it?”
“Maybe,” Nathan admitted. “But it doesn’t explain why someone is in a stolen prototype. Is there anything else unusual about it?”
“Only that it’s got a really large data core.”
“Maybe its an extended-use SA pod?” Nathan suggested.
“Those usually have more robust power systems, complete with their own miniature fusion reactors.”
“Jasher?”
“Yup,” Kayci confirmed. “There’s something else. This panel, here. I have no idea what any of these readings are for.”
“They’re not medical readings?” Nathan asked.
“If they are, they’re not like any I’ve ever seen.”
A warning indicator flashed on the pod’s control panel.
“She should be waking up any moment now,” Kayci announced as she activated the opening cycle.
The clear lid lifted slightly, then slid slowly down toward the foot of the unit, stopping once the occupant was exposed down to her knees.
“She certainly looks healthy enough,” Vladimir said as he and Jessica joined them.
“You guys get all the supplies moved over?” Nathan asked.
“All we could fit,” Jessica assured him. “There’s barely enough room for us, now.”
“She is exaggerating,” Vladimir insisted. “I did the math on the weight and distribution.”
“The patient’s metabolic functions are back to normal,” Doctor Barra announced. “We can move her anytime you like.”
“Shouldn’t she be awake, first?” Nathan wondered.
“I figured since we’re pressed for time, it would be better if I kept her sedated,” Kayci explained. “We have no idea under what circumstances she was put into medical SA. We may have a lot of explaining to do once she is fully conscious.”
