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Sail the Sea of Stars - chapter 16

 
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Fri Dec 09, 2016 10:36 pm    Post subject: Sail the Sea of Stars - chapter 16 Reply with quote




CHAPTER SIXTEEN

PARADISE LOST



"What is it, David?"

"I don't know. I mean, it sounds like simple air horns, but I’m sure it’s just the ship’s external PA system simulating the sound. The real question is . . . why?”

Danceea, Berhera, Narahee and I stood in the middle of a wide, grassy field in the foothills above Norado Valley. The morning sun was a flat red disk, pushing clouds aside as it rose above the horizon. The valley was filled with a long, low, mournful sound that repeated its one-note wail every few seconds. The sound echoed back from the mountains on the far side of the valley. The source of this odd honking was the distant Candlelight, resting on her submerged landing pads at the edge of the lake.

"Is it some kind of alarm, like for an on-board explosion or something?"

"That's probably our best guess," I said. "But honestly, I've never heard the ship sound an alarm like that before."

"David?" said Danceea. "Since the crew is spread out all over the valley, and since none of them are carrying communicators, wouldn't those horns be an effective way to . . . call everybody back to the ship?"

None of us felt obliged to comment on this disturbing thought, because a recall implied a serious emergency.

"We'd better get down there," I said. Danceea and I quickly mounted the whylaree and headed down towards the valley. I had a foreboding feeling.

___________ * ___________ * ___________ * ___________

The wall screen in the living room of Kahu Naking's home was suddenly filled with the image of a young Tasonian human seated at the command chair on the Candlelight's bridge. A soft bell tone fill the chief administrator's house. Captain Daniel North was sitting with his host and hostess at the table on their outdoor deck just outside the kitchen. The breakfast dishes had been pushed aside, and the coffee cups had just been refilled when the bell tone halted their conversation. Kahu Naking rose quickly from the table and hurried into the house, followed by North and Soceel. When they reached the living room, Kahu addressed the image of the young Tasonian on the bridge of the Candlelight.

"Yes?"

"Sir, this is Sorith, the duty officer on the second watch aboard the Candlelight. We've just received a priority message from Alliance Sector Headquarters. They ask that Captain North report to his ship immediately, and that he begin recalling all his personnel. The crew is instructed to make ready for space as soon as possible."

North's brooding eyes were the only thing that moved as he looked over at the chief administrator, who was openly bewildered by this odd occurrence.

"Did they say what it was about?" said the chief administrator.

"No, sir. I've recalled all my own off-duty technicians so that we can reassemble all the mechanisms on which we were doing minor maintenance. Captain, your ship will be ready in thirty minutes."

"Thank you," said Captain North. "I'll be right there." The screen went dark, and North turned to his host. "Well . . . duty calls."

"Yes, but never to a crew here on Tason, Daniel. No starship has ever been recalled to duty from a surface leave here."

Captain North and the chief administrator exchanged worried looks, then North hurried out.

___________ * ___________ * ___________ * ___________

All over the valley, crewmen turned puzzled faces towards the sound of blasting from the Candlelight, then they hurried towards their ship. Down in the Lake Garden, keeagonkas surfaced in the canals and pools to spread the word about the recall. Tasonians of all types rushed around the valley, gather up the crew and hurrying them towards the lake. There was a tangible are of concern created by the unprecedented act of recalling the vacationing crew. Whylaree mares and stallions galloped through the residential area, picking up personnel from the houses at which they’d stayed the night.

Hakth the magic dragon rushed into Ernie Fields’ room and pulled him from his bed, while Hakth’s two children dashed around the room and gather Ernie’s belongings. It was undoubtedly one of the more memorable awakenings of Ernie's young life.

An inverted flip-flyer came drifting in low over the giant tree to pick up several people who stood on the roof of the jari-cari home which was built among the branches. When the upside-down flyer passed low over the heads of the waiting crewmen, they tumbled up into the passenger section and landed helter-skelter on the padded seats. The pilot figured that was quicker than landing and waiting while everybody climbed it. He was right.

Out in the lake, doragonkas and keeagonkas were bobbing to the surface, towing crewmen. They conveyed their clinging passengers to the edge of the ship-to-shore ramp, which was already crowded with people who were rushing to board the Candlelight. Flip-flyers and jari-cari were depositing people onto the wings so they could enter the ship through airlocks. There was a great deal of shouting and confusion as the people questioned each other about the recall. The blaring air horn sound had ceased.

In some ways it was reminiscent of the Candlelight's joyful arrival, just one day earlier, but the unsmiling faces of everyone present was the important difference in the mood of the occasion. Their disappointment at having to leave Tason was tempered by their concern about the implications of the recall. There was very little complaining to be heard among the ship's personnel.

Captain North had arrived quickly, and he entered the ship's bridge while the first few dozen crewmen were hurrying to their stations aboard ship. On the bridge, a mixed group of Tasonian technicians and Candlelight crewmen occupied the consoles as North strode into the room.

"Captain on the bridge!" announced the Tasonian duty officer. He surrendered the command chair to North, who immediately donned a headset and keyed himself into both the internal and external PA system so he could be heard inside the ship and at the boarding way beneath it.

"Attention, all personnel. This is the captain. Occupy your stations as quickly as possible. I'll let you know what's going on as soon as I can. Make ready for space with all possible speed. Those are the only orders we have so far, so let's get to it."

Communications officer Tony Thorn entered the bridge during North's announcement, and he quickly manned his communication station. Other personnel were dashing onto the bridge area, replacing Tasonians at their stations. The two observer’s decks above the bridge area were filling up with crewmen whose jobs did not relate to liftoff.

"Is Sector Headquarters still on-line, Mr. Thorn?" said the captain.

"Aye, sir."

"Put them on."

One of the twenty-by-twenty foot screens rolled out from the left of the bridge. It was already filled with the image of the communication officer at Sector Headquarters. Thorn spoke into his headset mic, but his words were lost to the babbling crowd. However, the reply from Sector Headquarters burst from the loudspeakers and quieted the assembly.

"Vice Admiral Simmons is on-line, Captain North. Go ahead, sir."

The image of the communications officer was replaced by that of the one hundred and fifty-six-year old vice admirable in charge of the thirty-fifth galactic sector. Captain North straightened in his chair, an unconscious gesture of respect for a man whose reputation had been a legend for half-a-century. Simmons was a gaunt, hairless man with unbelievably wrinkled skin, covered with brown age spots. His eyelids were so baggy that North wondered what kept them from falling down over his eyes. There were two things about his appearance which conflicted with his obvious age. The first was his teeth, which were white and perfect and undoubtedly implants. The second was his hands, which were utterly without the slightest trace of tremors, despite being wrinkled and knobby. Those hands were as steady as a brain surgeons.

Vice Admiral Simmons peered out from under his baggy eyelids at Captain North with an alert, unblinking gaze. When he spoke, his voice was slow and hoarse, yet somehow authoritative.

"Hello, Danial."

"Good to see you, sir."

"I'm sorry about having to spoil your vacation, but your current location is just too advantageous for us to pass up. Besides, you've already got a great deal of useful background data on this situation in your ship’s database."

The babble-level rose, and Captain North lifted a casual hand for silence, which he got. Simmons continued.

"Daniel, that party of scientists you dropped off at Hollacox is in trouble. As you know, they were en route to a planet in the Large Magellanic Cloud to investigate some sort of abandoned artifact. It's on a planet that Carrington let his grandson name Nestria, for some damn reason. Well, we just found out that three Beltherian ships are en route to the same planet, and we think they're going to try to lay claim to the artifact before Carrington's people get set up . . . or maybe even after they get set up. You know the Beltherians."

North just nodded, but his face showed the worry he was feeling. Simmons continued.

"They're jamming our attempts to contact Carrington's people by jin-wave, so those scientists don't even know that they're in trouble. That artifact could be pretty important, which is why the Alliance supplied armed ships for the investigative team — three stellavoyagers. But they're no match for those Beltherian ships, which are actually rated about the same as your stellacruiser. Besides, the scientists insisted on picking their own crews, and they mostly just picked more scientists. So, if there's going to be any fighting, you can bet that Carrington's people are going to get chopped into chum."

For the first time, some of the crewmen laughed. Maybe Simmons planned it that way.

"And that, Daniel, is what we're dropping into your lap. You're about one whole day closer to the Large Magellanic Cloud than any other Alliance ship, thanks to the fact that Tason is out in the boondocks, glacially speaking. You've got Carrington's data in your computer with that pirate ship's log, so you'll be able to brief yourself during the trip. If you lift-off right away and let Gumjaw lean on the throttle and let Jimmy Lewton play around with the fuel flow systems all the way to your destination, then hopefully you won’t arrive at Nestria after those damn Beltherians have killed off all the scientists, which they might do. If this artifact is an abandoned armory filled with super-weapons, the Beltherians will do anything to get it. Reinforcements will be a little less than a day behind you, which might be no help at all. But I’ve made arrangements for you to have another valuable source of info you can use. I won't mention that on this open channel with your whole crew listening. I'll send it to you in a coded message. Hold on a second."

Simmons ancient hands danced over the keyboard of his computer with startling dexterity, and seconds later Captain North was reading a message on the small screen built into the left armrest of the command chair. Several of the bridge crewman had all twisted around in their seats to watch Captain North read the message and a few of the people at the guard rails of the two observers decks were leaning forward, blatantly trying to read the message. But the little screen was designed to unreadable by anyone further from it than a few feet.

North looked surprised when he glanced up from the screen when he finished reading the message and said, "Yes, this might be very helpful indeed."

“Godspeed to you, Danial."

"Thank you, Admiral," said North quietly.

"You're welcome. Now, raise ship, Captain North. We’re counting on you folks." And the screen went blank, just like that.

___________ * ___________ * ___________ * ___________

The area around the boarding way still looked like Free Beer Night at a certain space port bar called Duffy's Revenge, but the number of people arriving to join the crowd had slacked off. The Tasonian technicians aboard ship were hard at work rebuilding the equipment they had been overhauling. Somebody managed to get a headset down to Chief Sandusky, who was at the bottom of the crowded boarding way escalators, trying to bring order to the chaos. The headset allowed the chief to use the external p.a. system and boom orders at the noisy mob. The first order was a deafening "Quiet!". It was partially obeyed.

As the Candlelight's technicians joined the Tasonians, the repair work proceeded even faster. No major overhauls had been started, which was very fortunate. As the work was completed the Tasonian technicians were picked up by flip-flyers on the wings of the Candlelight, since the boarding way was currently a one-way affair. Twenty minutes after the air horns had started blasting out their mono-note message, eighty per cent of the crew was aboard ship. There were just a few stragglers who hadn't reported in yet.

Like me, for instance.

Berhera and Narahee were demonstrating more energy than I would have believed possible. I don't know how I kept from falling off as we plummeted down the slopes toward the valley below. The nice thing about riding a sentient "horse" is that you don't have to steer it, which leaves your hands free to clutch the U-shaped saddle handle for dear life.

We reached the valley floor and headed through the lushly landscaped residential area at full tilt. The whylarees didn't bother sticking to the stone walkways, which would have hurt their hooves anyway. We shot across lawns and between houses at a fearful clip. During the ride down from the foothills we had seen the mad exodus of the crew, so we knew that there must have been ample reason for haste.

Meanwhile, at the boarding way, Chief Sandusky was reporting to the captain through his headset concerning the arrival of the crew.

"I don't see anybody else coming, Captain, but there could be people at the far end of the valley who haven't gotten the word yet."

"We can't wait for them, Chief," said North's voice in the headset. "All the section heads have reported in, and they say they're not lacking any crucial personnel, so we'll just have to do without anybody who get's left behind.

"Aye, sir."

The last of the waiting crewmen scurried up the escalators just as the first deep notes from the Candlelight's engines were heard. The low, throbbing sound rose in volume and tingled the skin of the watching Tasonians who were standing well back from the lake's shoreline. In the water around the ship the aquatic forms turned and headed away, leaping from the water and arcing back into it in a widening semicircle that radiated out from the landing disks. The disks began to raise up until they broke the water's surface, lifting the Candlelight with them. The boarding way extended down further from the underside of the ship so that the escalators still touched the grass-covered middle disk. Sandusky took one more look around the valey to see if anyone was coming, then he followed the last of the crew up the escalator. The engine noise became a tangible presense that hung heavily in the air. The tough grass that covered the ship-to-shore ramp whipped around as the engines stirred the air beneath the ship.

One of the boarding way escalators rose up slowly to fold into its recess beneath the ship. At the same instant, Danceea and I came charging around the nearest residential structure on our whylaree mounts. Green chunks of sod shot up behind us as the thundering hooves tore up the ground. When the whylaree saw the rising escalator they put on a burst of speed that was truly awesome. We flew across the level ground between the buildings and the ship-to-shore ramp. The Candlelight's engines shock the air with their angry impatience to leave.

Like four-legged bullets, the whylarees carried us boiling across the ship-to-shore ramp. We reached the boarding way just as the first rising escalator popped into it's recess beneath the ship. The whylarees reared back and dug their hooves into the ground, gouging up the grass in a skidding stop that brought us within a few feet of the remaining three escalators.

Hastily I urged Narahee over towards Danceea. The sound of the throbbing engine made speech impossible, but I had little need for words as I reached over and slide my hand behind the girl's neck and pulled her mouth against mine. I gave her a kiss that promised my return. It was a kiss that told her how I felt about her and what she meant to me. She returned both the kiss and the message.

The third escalator was folding up. Narahee trotted over the only one that hadn't been raised. I leaped from Narahee's back to the bottom step of the escalator and let it carry me upward as I turned and watched Berhera carry Danceea back to shore. I noticed a flyer approaching with two passengers, and I was glad I wouldn't have the dubious honor of being the last one aboard ship.

But the flyer stopped next to Danccea and the two whylarees on shore, and I saw that the passengers were Carcainin and Aldarrin Aberron. I couldn't hear what was being said because of the engine noise, and the fact that they had to shout to be heard made it look like an argument. But a moment later Aldarrin handed Danceea a shoulder bag and leaned out of the flyer to hug her daughter quickly.

The escalator had carried me almost to the top, and I had to start walking in place to watch the strange encounter between Danceea and her parents. When Berhera suddenly turned towards the ship and galloped towards the base of escalator with Danceea still on the whylaree's back, I was so startled and nearly tripped and fell. Danceea leaped to the ground and raced up the escalator towards me. Berhera galloped back to join the others on shore, and they moved away from the Candlelight just as Danceea and I were carried up into the ship.

The escalator folded up, and as soon as it sealed shut, the noise of the engines became nearly inaudible. I stood there staring at Danceea with dumbfounded disbelief. She was actually starring back with the same expression.

"Why . . . " I stopped, because I didn't know what to say next. "What . . . " I choked again for exactly the same reason.

Finally, Danceea spoke. "I think I'll let the captain explain. He's waiting for us on the bridge." She turned without another word and headed for the internal escalator that would carry her up to the bridge. I followed — silent and confused.

All over Narado Valley, Tasonians watched as the first starship ever to be recalled from a surface leave on Tason rose from her landing disks and cruised across the lake. The aquatic life forms honored us by racing along beneath the ship, a sad farewell to new friends whose visit had been cut short. Helmsman Samuel Kellogg took the ship through the mountain pass while the residents of Norado community watched in silence.

The Galactic Stellacruiser Candlelight flew over the waterfall at the far end of the mountain pass. The sublight engines blazed, and the ship rose with impressive speed. It dwindled to point and vanished in seconds, leaving Norado Valley quiet again.

_________________
____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)
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