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Sail the Sea of Stars - chapter 3

 
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Thu Aug 18, 2016 2:18 pm    Post subject: Sail the Sea of Stars - chapter 3 Reply with quote

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Now it's time to introduce the heroine.
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CHAPTER 3

THE G.P.L. REMBRANDT


Thirty minutes earlier . . .

"Ladies, gentlemen, please — this is getting us nowhere," Dr. Xavier Carrington pleaded with the learned and disguised group at the long table in front of him. Only a small percentage of them were human, so only a small percentage of the rowdy conversational noise which filled the room was being spoken in human languages.

"We're supposed to be planning how to investigate this artifact, not arguing about what we think it is — especially since none of us have actually seen it yet!"

The noise of ten different debates subsided, and each of the life forms around the large rectangular conference table withdrew into their personal spaces. The table was covered with a profusion of printouts, note pads, computers (both handheld and larger), beverage cups, and pitchers of various drinks. Dr. Carrington, standing at the head of the table, placed his palms on the shiny black surface and leaned towards the assembled group of distinguished intellectuals, letting his penetrating gaze rest on several of the loudest of the former debaters for a few seconds before he spoke.

When he was sure he had their attention, he said, "I suggest we return to our discussion about which personnel we should assign to each of the categories we've agreed on. Remember, we only have one-hundred and twenty hours before we arrive at Hollacox and begin our pre-departure briefings."

Twelve feet to Carrington's left was a huge crystalsteel window set in the hull of the Galactic Stellarliner Rembrandt, a floor-to-ceiling, eighty-meter-wide expanse of transparent material that afforded a magnificent view. And the view at that moment was even more magnificent than usual.

Fifteen minutes ago, the Rembrandt had terminated its hyperdrive and soared into the Enrikson star system just long enough to dazzle it's passengers with a choice bit of galactic sight seeing. Just 320,000 kilometers away, a banded Jovian planet hung in space like a God-sized Christmas ornament in soft focus. Its stormy atmosphere swirled in a slow motion dance as the Rembrandt's passengers gathered at every starboard view port on the ship to gaze in awe. A black crescent sliver of the night side peaked around the right edge of the planet. Flickers of super-lightning bolts strobed at the edge of the dark hemisphere.

The Rembrandt was cruising slowly past the gas giant at a stately 40,000 kilometers per hour, winding its way through nine of the planet's moons, whose current orbital positions placed them on a relatively straight line which ran at a tangent through the planet's nearest edge. The Rembrandt's vector was just above the plane of the gas giant's incredible ring system. The closets edge of the rings was only 312 kilometers from the passenger liner.

"What a beautiful sight!" exclaimed the dark-haired young woman who stood gazing through the huge crystalsteel window. She turned to the humans and aliens at the table wearing a smile that rivaled the beauty of the view outside (and she knew it), her eyes bright with excitement. "Ladies and gentlemen, I think you should take a break and come see this. It's remarkable!"

Dr. Carrington smiled at the young lady with undisguised admiration, and all the tension seemed to evaporate from his tense posture. He turned back to the squabbling mob of life forms and said, "Miss Aberron is right. Since Captain Renfroe has taken the time to provide us with this spectacle, we should avail ourselves of it."

The gas giant was just coming into full view through the view port, filling the window with its banded glory. The people at the table gasped in awe as they quickly rose from their seats and joined the young woman. One of the scientists hurried over to the environmental control panel and dimmed the lights.

Dr. Carrington picked up his thin rectangular computer and joined the assembly at the view port and trained the device on the planet's rings. He held up the computer with the backside facing the window so the camera was trained on the dazzling view outside. The computer screen displayed the view, and Carrington zoomed in closer. He touched a button on the rim of the computer, and the view converted to 3D.

"I can actually see the larger chunks of ice in the rings. Here, take a look." Carrington stepped over to young woman and handed the computer to her.

Danceea Aberon gazed at the display and found herself floating in space just slightly above the planet's rings, a flat cloud of flying debris, dirty chunks of frozen matter that tumbled and twinkled in the harsh light of the planet's primary star.






"Fantastic," she whispered, grinning with delight. Dr. Carrington studied her beautiful profile for a moment and felt a wistful longing for bygone days.

If only I were thirty-five years younger, he thought to himself — and it was not the first time he'd had this meditative thought during his eighteen-month association with Danceea.

Dr. Carrington's daydreams were interrupted when Professor Keith Ho Li moved up next to Carrington to find an open spot at the view port. Ho Li's obvious interest in the spectacle outside surprised Carrington. Ho Li was a native of Kublai Khan, the oversized moon of a gas giant called Enroncia in the Sanwaniki star system. It was the first world colonized by China over 200 years earlier. This meant Ho Li had a visible trace of oriental blood, but it was the reason he towered a head-and-half above the crowd around him. The diameter of Ho Li's homeworld was 0.75 that of Earth, and it was only 0.62 as massive. The lighter gravity produced tall, thin-boned people, despite the fact the colony world's original settlers had been Chinese. But Ho Li's energetic way of walking in the Rembrandt's one-G artificial gravity betrayed the fact that he had left Kublai Khan long ago.

Carrington, standing only five foot ten, smiled up at his traveling companion. He waved one hand toward the spectacular sight outside and said, "This must be a lot like what you saw in the sky every day when you were growing up. Aren't you bored with it?"

Ho Li gazed at the gas giant for a moment, then he answered in his soft, slow voice. "I once knew a man from Earth who bought one of those hundred-million-credit homes they built on the North rim of the Grand Canyon. He said he got tired of the view in just six months. On a hunch, I asked him how often he traveled to other places to vary his scenery. He looked at me puzzled for a moment, then he said, When you've got the best view on the planet, why would you go anywhere else?"

Carrington, suppressing a smile, gave his friend a five second count, then said diplomatically, "But you didn't answer my question. Are you bored with it?"

"No. I've varied my scenery quite a bit in the last fifty years."

"I see. And the best may be yet to come," said Carrington, his face turning suddenly serious, his eyes revealing a suppressed excitement. Ho Li knew what he was thinking.

"Yes, indeed. I keep wondering just what we might be getting into. There are so many unknowns. And we'll be so far from anyone who can help us if we get into trouble."

Carrington gave Ho Li a sardonic smile. "Want to back out? I turned down more than two-hundred qualified people in your field alone who would love to replace you."

The corners of Ho Li's mouth twitched upward. "No thank you. I suppose it takes a few unknowns to keep life from getting boring."

Both men gazed out the viewport and seemed lost in thought for a few moments. Danceea had been listening to the conversation while she panned the camera in the computer back and forth, watching mountain-sized boulders of ice dance slowly among the planet's rings. She turned and studied the profiled faces of the two men for a moment, trying to guess what thoughts were moving through their minds. She wondered, yet again, if there was any possibility of convincing Dr. Carrington that she should be a part of his team.

Danceea Aberon had been one of Dr. Carrington's students at the University of New Dusseldorf for the past year and a half. Her skills in the field of alien archeology had so impressed Carrington that she had become not only his star pupil, but his assistant.

The week that Danceea graduated from the University, Dr. Carrington completed his feverish efforts to assemble a team of scientists for the investigation of a remarkable discovery on a planet in the Magellanic Clouds. Danceea debated, petitioned, and pleaded with her mentor for weeks, trying to convince him that she would be a legitimate and worthwhile addition to the handpicked team of scientists who were en route to plum the mysteries of something extraordinary.

Carrington pointed out repeatedly that if he demonstrated the kind of blatant favoritism necessary to include her — a mere graduate student — on this important expedition, it would mean excluding someone else with professional credentials equal-to-or-greater-than Carrington's own.

In the end, Danceea accepted the decision and signed the nondisclosure agreement that prevented her from discussing the details she had learned of both the expedition and the discovery that Carrington was en route to investigate.

The only reason she was even on the same starship now with Carrington and several members of his team was because they were both traveling to Timbuk Three. There Carrington's team would catch a connecting flight to Hollacox, where they would rendezvous with the rest of the team — top scientists from scores of different planets.

The Rembrandt was passing the nearest edge of the rings, and soon it would be leaving the gas giant behind. Danceea turned her attention back to the celestial scenery and panned the computer along the lower edge of the rings. Several of the team members had resumed their discussions about the organization of the expedition. Small groups began to wander back towards the table where their notes and data devices were located.

Carrington and Ho Li had drifted into a debate they had started hours earlier concerning the number of combat personnel they should include on the expedition. Ho Li was arguing on the side of pessimistic caution, Carrington on the side of optimistic faith.

Danceea was about to shift her attention to the planet's swirling atmosphere when something odd caught her eye. At the edge of the rings, barely visible through the clutter of debris, was something very different from the dirty snowballs and chunks of rock. It seemed to be imbedded in the ring material — and it was much darker than the pale, frozen fragments.

"Dr. Carrington, what are those dark objects in the rings?"

"We won't have room for that many combat crewmen, " Carrington was saying to Ho Li.

Danceea spotted two more of the objects, close to the first. Their shapes were becoming more distinct. They had a decidedly artificial look. She realized that the objects were not moving along with the mass of ice fragments. They were plowing along through the ring material, moving parallel with the Rembrandt. She held the computer's camera on them for several seconds and watched as they seemed to rise towards the upper boundary of the rings, like dolphins surfacing as they swam next to a speeding boat.

"Dr. Carrington, I think you should at look at this," Danceea said with noticeable alarm. She watched the three objects as they cleared the upper boundary of the rings and banked to port. They were on an intercept course with the Rembrandt. Danceea could now see them clearly. They were starships.

Carrington turned to Danceea. "What's wrong — "

The leading ship unleashed a volley of bright plasma bolts which streaked towards the luxury liner and plowed into her stern. The Rembrandt lurched as her engines were disabled, and the huge ship began to tumble slowly.

In the conference room, the lights flickered a few times, the artificial gravity failed for a few seconds, and then an alarm suddenly shrieked from the ceiling speakers, accompanied by an urgent voice.

"Attention! Attention! We are under attack! Repeat, we are under attack! Proceed to your cabins in an orderly manner. Keep all doors sealed in case of hull breech. Wait for further instructions. Attention! Attention! We are under attack — "

The view through the port was rotating as the ship tumbled slowly in space. For a few more seconds, Danceea could still see the three attackers. They were closing on the luxury liner, and they had fanned out so that all three ships could bring their plasma cannons to bear on their prey. The Rembrandt's own defensive weapons began to return fire, but each gunnery position was being quickly targeted for destruction by the attackers.

Shouts and screams filled the room as the Rembrandt took several more hits. Danceea could feel the impacts through the soles of her feet as the carpeted deck trembled. Most of the scientist had already fled from the room, but Danceea stayed at the big window, mesmerized by the sight.

She felt someone tugging at her arm, and she turned to see the pale and rigid face of Dr. Carrington. She could see the muscles of his jaw flexing as he struggled to maintain self-control.

"We've got to leave," he said in a voice so quiet she could barely hear above the noise.

Danceea nodded quickly and let Carrington pull her towards the door. She glanced back at the window and saw that one of the ships was maneuvering to flank the Rembrandt. Plasma bolts from the attacking ship's weapons were spearing the sides of the luxury liner. The lights flickered again, but they remained on.

The corridor was a madhouse. Panic-stricken passengers were stampeding each other in their rush to get to their cabins. Carrington and Danceea took one look at the chaotic scene and then ducked back into the conference room.

"Perhaps we had better wait here for a few minutes," Carrington said. He seemed much calmer than a few moments ago, and Danceea found this reassuring.

"We've stopped rotating," Danceea said above the noise from the hallway. She was gazing at the attacking ship that was coming alongside the luxury liner. In a quiet and fearful voice, she said, "They're going to board us, aren't they?"

"It would seem so," Carrington said. All his dignity and composure had returned. He strode across the room until he reached the view port, his head held high as he studied the situation, his face devoid of emotion. Danceea joined him. The firing from the enemy ship had stopped. The Rembrandt's guns were silent, too. Either the Rembrandt's weapons had all been disabled, or the captain had ordered a cease fire.

Daneea tried to ask a question, but she discovered that her mouth had gone dry. She swallowed forcefully and tried again. "I wonder who they are . . . and what they want."

"Cargo," Carrington said, never taking his eyes off the view outside. "Luxury liners transport valuable material like platinum, spices, exotic medicines — things that carry the heaviest insurance. They will probably demand that the passengers turn over their valuables. But they might decide they don't have time for that. I'm sure we sent out an S.O.S." He leaned forward, eyes narrowed as he watched the flanking ship sliding close alongside the Rembrandt. Grappling beams suddenly lanced out from the other ship and started hauling the luxury liner towards it.

"The Rembrandt had most of her shields down," Carrington spoke as if he were thinking out loud. "We had most of our shields down because we were so close to the rings."

"I don't understand," Danceea said.

"We only needed the inner shield to deflect the clutter of the outer ring region. If the Rembrandt's outer shields had been up, they would have dragged through the rings and disrupted them."

Danceea nodded as she realized what Carrington meant. "That's why the attackers were able to disable our weapons so quickly."

The noise from the hallway had diminished considerably. Danceea hurried over to the door and glanced out quickly. "We can go now," she called to Carrington. He turned immediately and joined her at the door.
"We should try to make it to our cabins so that the passageways will be clear," said Carrington. If the attackers board us, the Rembrandt's crewmen will fight them."

"How can they board us without blowing the airlock doors? That would kill — " Danceea stopped as she remembered that stealing the ship's cargo was the pirate's primary goal.

"The attackers might want hostages for ransom, too," said Carrington. "If so, they'll simply tell the captain that if he doesn't allow them to board, they'll open our hull up and board us in pressure suits. The captain will have no choice."

Danceea stared at Carrington for moment, then in a voice that was barely a whisper, she said, "You and your team would bring a good ransom, wouldn't they? Important people with high connections — "

"We should try to get to our cabins," Carrington said quickly. "If they do breach the hull, the cabin doors are designed to protect the passengers."

Danceea studied the door of the conference room for a moment. "True, but so will this door here. All the doorways are made that way. And if we stay here, we get a better view."

Carrington smiled at the young woman, impressed by her calm and her courage. Both he and Dancea turned to look at the huge viewport. One of the attacking ships had pulled alongside the Rembrandt and was now maneuvering in closer.

"They're docking with us," said Danceea.

"The captain must have surrendered." Carrington took hold of Danceea's arm and pulled her into the corridor. "Come with me. We've got to get to the captain."

They hurried down the corridor, dodging around the terrified people who were still trying to reach their cabins. Carrington had a firm grip on Danceea's right arm, and he was roughly pushing people aside when they blocked his way. The fact that Danceea had never seen the distinguished science show the slightest trace of rudeness or impatience told her that he knew they were in mortal danger and every second counted.

The passengers of G.P.L Rembrandt were all going to die.


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