Alien Shore Chapter Two
GRID Traveler Trinity: Alien Shores
Author: J Carrell Jones
Table of Content
Chapter 2
Then his messmates drew him up, but on the deck he died, And they stitched him in his hammock Which was so fair and wide, And they lowered him overboard And he drifted with the tide, and he sank in the Lowland, Lowland, low And he sank in the Lowland sea.
- (The Golden Vanity, 1685, Earth.)
- (The Golden Vanity, 1685, Earth.)
Chapter 2
Sean’s vision blurred. He was slowly coming out of Trank. His temples throbbed but he wasn’t in pain – too used to War jumps he supposed. He fumbled in his pocket and pulled out a hypo of STIM – it was a stimulant and pain response blocker. He pressed the hypo against his arm and felt a cold-rushed-jolt hit him. His eyes snapped wide open and his vision was crystal clear. For ten seconds he could read the small text on the Nav-console, twenty feet away. STIM gave him 20/5 vision for a brief burst. He looked around and saw Top Deck coming to from the walking dead. Zombie like movements were replaced by the eye snap open wide reaction from STIM. He tapped on his CRT. “Johnson, do you hear me?”
The deep voice replied, “Yes, Captain Blakemore, how are you feeling?”
Since the Johnson responded with a question all was well. Had the Johnson been in trouble it would have immediately replied with a status report.
“I’m fine, thanks.” Sean had to reply in an exact word code. “The Jump went well?”
“Yes it did,” Johnson said, “while enroute I realized I could save us some time. Mr. Landtrap has done a wonderful job in maintaining my engines. I was able to push them at 120% with no danger to crew or mission. We are two hours ahead of schedule.”
Sean smiled. “Has Necron noticed our arrival?”
“Not that I am aware of. Comm. channels are silent and I am running in external stealth mode.”
“You’re a good ship Johnson. Back to normal mode.”
“Yes, Captain. Returning to normal mode.”
Sean tapped out a command from the keyboard and touched his CRT. All lights inside Johnson switched from the normal bright yellow-white fluorescent to an amber glow. The ship was officially on stealth mode.
Sean sat in the amber light thinking about the Johnson. Out of all the things that bugged Sean, having the Johnson toggled to “normal” mode bugged him the most. Sean fought GRID Command tooth and nail on their decision. During the first half of the SI War, old ships like Johnson were being compromised. Instead of finding ways to secure the ships, GRID Command moth-balled half of them, and gave the rest “Toggled” modes – the crew called it “dumb” mode. The moment Sean punched in the command to switch Johnson to “dumb” mode Top Deck fell silent for nearly a minute. Sean missed the Johnson’s AI. Flipping the switch was like cold-cocking an old friend because a stranger said ‘do it, or else.’ And so, he watched the main screen in silence. Necron floated in the center and grew bigger with each second. “Scan for activity. Anything yet?”
Dawn tapped on the CRT. “Nothing, sir. No, belay that. Signal on a tight beam.”
“Can we pull in residue data?”
Mr. Kirkland was at his Comm. Station. “Captain, recording residue data now. Beam is encoded with a variation of Level 9 protocols. It’ll take a while to decode.”
Sean ran through different scenarios, Loggar contacting Robin, someone contacting Robin, someone secretly contacting Robin. “Mr. Kirkland, how long to decode?”
Kirkland ran the procedures in his head. He figured out the variant and concluded it would be about 30 minutes. “Maybe three hours, sir.”
Sean nodded, “You got one.”
Kirkland nodded, “Yes, sir.”
Loggar checked the time. The Johnson wouldn’t be in orbit for another hour or so. She had one of the new techs run scans, but nothing turned up. After their little adventure with Agegi she had the two main chambers sealed. She also placed several layers of Level 7 shields at each entrance. She was the only one to know the remote codes to deactivate each shield. That day still haunted her. She would wake up in a cold sweat clawing the sheets. It was a day she never hoped to repeat.
Robin sat in the command chair sipping tea. She played what happened to her on Necron. The more she thought the angrier she got. It didn’t bug her so much that GRID Command made Sean a captain, he deserved it. She was bugged that they made him her senior! She was promoted first, she earned it. It was a slap to her face. But maybe things were going to right themselves again. She had an ally now and things were going to get interesting. Word was that Loggar was a bit too reckless. First, Robin was reluctant to tell the whole truth. But once she saw the hypocrisy of the Most High she talked. Several senior Officers had their suspicions but couldn’t prove anything. Loggar was highly respected and listened too. And, that was the problem. GRID Command was a military branch, not civilian. Something had to be done and it had to be done soon. So, Robin was ‘picked’ for this delicate mission. Webster had another five hours before it reached Necron and as the minutes ticked by Robin fumed and got angrier still. She felt more than heard the pop. All hands turned to look at the sound. Her cup of tea had vanished in a burst of light. Astounded, Robin looked at her hands. She looked up and told Command Deck as they were; all was well, nothing wrong, or something to the effect. She remembered Adruqu telling her that she could only do Magick on Necron. But, they were at least 1500 light-years still out from Necron. It started as a quick jerk tightening of her gut, then a warm fuzzy feeling and last a realization – the proverbial “light bulb” blinked on.
“Mr. Dansel, prepare for War jump.”
Mr. Dansel, the Webster’s main navigator said, “Yes, ma’am. Preparing for War jump.”
Robin tapped at her chair screen. “All hands, all hands, this is the Captain. Prepare for War jump. Ten minutes. Ten minutes mark!” She tapped out a few more times. “Engineering.”
A tiny voice came out from tiny speakers. “Yes, Captain?”
“You heard the preparation. Make it so. Ten minutes.”
The tiny voice came back. “Ten minutes, ma’am.”
Mr. De La Cruz, Comm. Officer, said, “Captain, message coming in from Necron. Level 9 protocol with variant.”
Robin smiled. Today was going to be a good day after all. She couldn’t wait to see Sean’s face when he landed on Necron. He told her, “I want you off my ship, Captain.” That was fine. She probably would have done the exact same thing. Wait until he hears the words, “I want you off this planet, Captain.” She amused herself for a few minutes replaying the pending encounter over and over in her head. Revenge is so sweet tasting when delivered cold.
“Captain, Webster is ready for War jumps.” Mr. Rogers, the Webster’s XO said.
Robin tapped out a command. “All hands, all hands, War jump in 10 seconds. Mark!” She tapped a few times and then spoke to Mr. Dansel. “Ten seconds to War jump, Mr. Dansel. Make it a public countdown.”
“Aye, ma’am.” Mr. Dansel opened up the public channel, “Ten, nine, eight . . .”
Robin sat back against her chair. The Webster was a newer ship and thus didn’t require the crew to Trank-up like on the Johnson. The crew would come away with a mild headache, some nausea, maybe even dizziness . . .”
“Seven, six, five, four . . .”
But that was a small price for progress. “I want you off my ship, Captain.” Robin curled her lips in a mean-spirited smile. “I want you off my ship, Captain.” ‘Fine then you shit. I’ll get off your ship, but revenge is a bitch.’ She never said that, of course. But does it matter? Revenge is revenge, however it is served.
“Three, two, one . . . jump!”