WONDERPRESSDOWN

A short story by E. Owens

Chapter One

“Captain Yuriavich to the bridge.”  The voice said in his ear.

Janos Yuriavich tapped the sensor behind his ear to activate the bone conduction microphone in his jaw.

“On my way.”

“Of course” Janos thought. He would have to be all the way at the other end of the Asimov when he was called back to the bridge.  Janos took the nearest lift to Deck 2, walked the three hundred meters of access tunnel at a brisk pace and activated the bridge door with his handprint. Eight minutes and thirty two seconds.  A pretty good pace for walking.  His personal best was just over three minutes at a dead run.

“Captain on deck!”  First officer Sato yelled.

Janos laughed.  Sato was the only other person on the bridge.  She stood at attention.

“Very funny. At ease.”  Janos said smiling.

Janos looked around. The entire bridge displays were active. Something was going on.

“Report.” 

“We had visual contact on Object 13578 last cycle.” 

Janos was a bit surprised.  Contact should not have been for another day or so.  They had begun tracking Object 13578 four months earlier. An object that was originally a Kuiper Belt object imaged in 2066 by the Japanese Kuiper Belt Telescope known as The Big Eye. And here they were nearly two hundred years later advancing on what had become a myth in global culture.  A fourteen hundred meter long object shaped like a stick. Very odd for a natural object in space.

Janos looked up at the main viewer. A large screen four meters high by seven meters wide.  On the screen was the object.  Janos was stunned.

“I have dreamt about this day all my life Sato.” 

“It’s still two AU away but we can make out some detail. Well not exactly detail but it has features.”  Sato looked at Janos not quite meeting his gaze.

“You’ve seen it already.”  Janos said a little disappointment in his voice.

“Sorry Janos I couldn’t help it.  It was in the images from last night. I didn‘t expect to see it either”  Sato said and then frowned.

Sato tapped the screen on the science console and the large viewer image changed to something more defined but not exactly identifiable.

Janos wrinkled his nose.

“Not exactly earth shattering.”  Janos said. The sound of disappointment now gone. “Congratulations you are first human in space to see the first blob images of Object 13578.”

Sato smiled again.  She felt good that she had not ruined the moment for her friend and captain.

Janos looked pensive for a moment.

“Why did we catch up so quickly?”  Janos said his eyebrows stitching together.

“Only one explanation I can think of. Well two actually but the second one is crazier than the first.

“What is the crazier one?”  Janos said baiting her.

“We are traveling twenty percent faster than we are supposedly capable of which means space here is different than space anywhere else we have been.”  Sato replied.

“And the least crazy answer?” 

“The object has slowed down significantly in the last few days.” 

Janos thought for a moment.

“Call everyone to conference room four.  Train everything we have on the object and start recording continuously.  Send all data so far and in the future to work station four.  I want some of the brains to see this before we get any closer.  Also I want a system wide diagnostic immediately.”  Janos said all hint of humor out of his voice.

Sato noticed the change immediately.  Janos was worried.

“Which idea do you think is correct?”  Sato said calmly.

“Either, neither, or both.  I want this moment documented of course and I want to reach the object as much if not more than anyone on this ship but from here we proceed with caution because if one of your two answers is correct we are out of our element and the safety of this ship and crew comes first.”

Sato gave a half grin.

“Which idea seems worse to you?”

“I don’t know that’s why I want to talk to some brains first and I want everyone in on this.  Call the meeting in thirty minutes and continue to gather data. I am swinging by the galley for a sandwich meet you in room four in twenty.” 

Janos then quickly left the bridge.

Janos didn’t go to the galley after he left the bridge.  He went to his quarters which as Captain of the Asimov were only thirty meters from the bridge.  He sat down at his personal computer and touched the image of the keyboard displayed on the desk using the holographic interface.  A laser generated image of a keyboard appeared on the desk.

[Command Function]  [Code] - 1 , 1, Alpha, Beta, Gamma, 1 - [Protocol Zeta] [Communication Earth Post 001][Message] -  Visual contact of Object 13578.  Proceeding with caution

[Computer] [Code Accepted] [Protocol Zeta Active] [Query]  - What is stealth level?

[Command] - Stealth level two.

[Computer] - Confirmed for stealth level two. Initiating protocol.

[Command] - Lock out

[Computer] - Lock out confirmed.

Janos did this all quickly.  He grabbed the sandwich he had tucked in his personal cooling box earlier after his shift on the bridge had ended and before he had decided to check out the engines.  The vibration he had felt in the deck plates had made him curious.  He secured his room and headed toward station four.



Chapter Two

The room held the thirty member crew comfortably with just a little space left over.  A massive carbon fiber composite table with carbon fiber frame chairs with padded seats surrounded the large table which took up most of the room.  Projecting out of the center of the table was a viewing screen that when unused appeared to be a thick pane of glass. When active the people on either side of the table were viewing the same thing. For each side the image was correct.  The screen had many functions and was tied to every station in the ship.  Conference station four was the largest of such rooms. Stations one, two, and three were smaller spaces for the different departments and the usage of these stations was not by schedule.   Room four was.

As Janos entered he noted the screen was active but displayed no image.  Sato had left the “reveal” to him.  Sometimes he wondered if she was more like his mother, sister, or a potential love interest the way she negotiated his feelings. Since he found her very sexy the first two ideas didn’t really appeal to him much but you couldn’t date your First Officer.  Not openly anyway and Janos wasn’t comfortable with sneaking around.  As he always did his mind jumped to the future and the possible paths it could take. If this object turned out to be what everyone aboard thought it was when they signed up, and he and his team were the first people in history to confirm such a thing, he supposed he could date whoever he wanted.  The thought put a smile on his face.  One more reason not to fail he thought.

Janos noticed Sato eyeing him a similar expression on her face.  Janos also saw Doctor T’Shenge  watching both of them out of the corner his eye.  T’Shenge moved to his side.

“I bet they feel great in your hands.”  T’Shenge said under his breath.

Janos nearly choked on the bite of sandwich he had taken.  Everyone turned to watch him cough.  Someone offered him a cup of coffee.  He accepted quickly and washed the bit of food down.  He turned to T’Shenge.

“First do no harm doctor.”  Janos said his eyes tearing and moist.

“Get a room already.”  T’Shenge said patting him on the back.

T’Shenge and Janos had been colleagues since their days in Old Europe Academy nearly twenty years earlier.  They had served seventeen of those years together. And being the ship’s doctor he had nearly equal rank to Janos and was nine years his senior.  No one else would have dared to say anything like that to the captain.  Even if T’Shenge hadn’t been the ship’s doctor Janos’ rank wouldn’t have stopped him from harassing him. That was just the way the Afrikaner was.

Janos waved at Sato while still coughing and clearing his throat to start the meeting.

Sato looked surprised for a moment then began.

“People we have nearly reached Object 13578. It is currently two point two AU distant which I am sure will strike most of you as odd right away.  Here is the most current image from The Big Eye mounted forward on Asimov.”  Sato said this while punching a pad she held in her hand.  Everyone stared at the screen their faces in various forms of shock.  Janos who happened to look up pulled back quickly.  The data he had seen twenty minutes earlier was from the night before since that time the Asimov had moved considerably closer.  Close enough for The Big Eye, now with all its functions and processing power trained on the object to offer an image only a few minutes old.  The image was unbelievable. Still fuzzy but undeniable.

Janos stepped forward looking at the screen. Others stood up looking closely. Many people began enhancing and measuring using their own work pads displayed before them.

Janos was both excited and frightened at the same time.  Before the entire crew the truth about object 13578 had been revealed.  An object first seen nearly two centuries earlier and first cataloged as an anomaly moving in the night sky could now be seen clearly enough to know perhaps the ultimate truth.  Mankind was not alone in the universe.

The chatter in the room was loud but not party loud. These were scientists and engineers not college students throwing a frat party but the conversation was impossible to follow.  Janos let it go on for a couple minutes then he touched his own pad and froze the image.  People touched their pads a few times before they realized their pads had no control.  They all one after the other turned to Janos who stared back.

“What are we looking at Sato?”  Janos said quietly trying to remain calm.

“It is roughly fourteen hundred meters long and the computer calculates it is over two hundred meters in diameter.  Not quite cylindrical as you can see more ovoid along its minor axis.  “

“I don’t see any propulsion.”  One of the attendees said.  A doctor Thompson.

Janos held up his hand.  Sato continued.

“EM spectrum shows a field extending from the forward and aft areas of the craft. Very very strong. The computer is still analyzing its frequencies and patterns apparently it is very complex and changing.”  Sato said this and punched up the image she was looking at on her small pad.

The overlay image showed two arcing patterns at the two ends of the ship.  The patterns were coherent but shifted moment to moment.

“Holy crap.”  One of the Engineers said. A doctor Fallon a young man in his thirties.

“What is it Doctor Fallon.”  Janos asked.

“That is weird sir. Very very weird.”  Fallon said his eyes wide. A look of shock on his face.

“Please explain very very weird Robert.”  Janos said patiently.

“You aren’t going to believe this but I have seen patterns like this before.  I was in the American Territories when I was a young grad student.  As part of my early research into historical data retrieval.  In the late twentieth and early twenty first centuries there was this low level cult fascination, if you will, with harmonics.  They used sand or other substances and created standing waves on sound speakers and sheets of metal.  These patterns had been found depicted by various mediums in the oldest of archeological sites. These aren’t exactly those patterns because all those patterns were two dimensional.  We had a guy in our research group who was a computer wiz.  He used the quantum computers at World Tech to produce the same patterns in three dimensions and these look very very similar to that.  We are looking at electromagnetic harmonics. Standing wave forms in three dimensions. Four if you consider time a dimension. Which I don‘t.”

Another member of the crew raised their hand.

Janos half grinned. The idea of an adult raising their hand like a school child amused him.  The woman was a theoretical physicist and engineer.

“I too have seen this and I would be willing to bet if we did our own analysis we would find that the two patterns are on a continuum with the two particular patterns exactly  ninety degrees out of phase with each other.”

Janos looked at T’Shenge.

“Greek to me pal.” T’Shenge said shrugging.

“Explain why you think this.” Janos said spurring her on.

“The work Doctor Fallon refers to is that of Taylor Branson a direct descendant of the entrepreneur Richard Branson  who helped to get the concept of privatized space exploration off the ground.  Mr. Branson’s work is not only considered to be an astonishing scientific achievement but…”  The woman began then paused.

“Please continue.  We just saw our first alien ship I don’t think anything is too crazy now.” Janos said smiling his most accommodating Russian smile.

“Well it is also spiritual in nature.  Mr. Branson is not a lettered scientist. He is a visionary genius like his great great great grandfather.  If we had more time we could pull up the vids of his experiments in standing waveform using three dimensional EM Field bubbles. It would make your skin crawl. If I may be so provocative.”  The woman said cringing slightly.

Sato looked confused.

“Doctor Seaton. Tell us what you mean.”  Sato said.

“It looked alive.  The standing wave forms looked like bacteria, amoebas, and worms.  He manipulated the frequencies overlapping and intertwining them.  His research was actually shut down because it’s scared the people at World Tech.  Old Christian nonsense.”

“It was really that weird?”  Sato said probing.

:”I saw the vids. I don’t think they were manufactured and although I am a woman of science I am also a woman of faith and they scared the hell out of me but they were brilliant.  I will say this. If what Mr. Branson was doing wasn’t rediscovering a basic fundamental truth of the universe he was making one of his own.  You have to see it to believe it.”  The woman said shaking. Apparently the memory frightened her.

Dr. Fallon spoke up again.

“I recall some speculation that the orbital levels of electrons and their particular arrangement is also based on this idea which isn’t really that farfetched since it is all about attraction, repulsion, and the balancing of fields. It makes sense they would fit into a geometric lattice formed by energy levels and their waveforms. It kind of goes hand in hand with the idea that space is the so called third charge that repels both positive and negative fields which is what keeps electrons from crashing into the nucleus of an atom yet keeps protons, electrons, and neutrons in close proximity to each other. It would make sense that the things we have come to know as matter, if repellant to the substance we have come to know as space, would occupy niches in the wave patterns. Whatever those wave patterns may be composed of.”

The room was silent.  Janos tried to absorb everything and come to some course of action.

“So let’s suppose this is their propulsion system. And I am guessing Doctor Seaton that you suspect it is in this ninety degree state because it is slowing down thus shedding velocity…” Janos said looking at her.

“Yes. Very perceptive Captain.”  The woman said. No condescension in her voice.

“I try Gloria.  Let’s wildly speculate for a moment.  If this is indeed some kind of propulsion based on the same fundamental principles that have been known to human kind for certainly almost two hundred if not thousands of years then what is our course of action?  Do we dare try to step foot on the ship?  Is it possible that the ship still has a crew?  What should we know first before we attempt contact?”  Janos said to the entire room.

A couple people simultaneously said “How long has it been here?”

“Well we know it has been here two hundred years and in that time it hasn’t contacted us. It appears to have been on a course designed to keep its shape hidden from our technology.”  Janos said.

“Why do you say that?”  Came a voice from the other side of the screen.

“Because we had to approach it on a parabolic course. Come at it from the side to see it.  On Earth people have routinely looked for this object for the last two hundred years. To avoid being seen due to parallax when Earth comes around the sun approaching from one side it would have to have turned it’s orientation. Otherwise the Big Eye 10 would  have seen at least this much detail. That indicates at least a program if not intelligent operation. And it never tried to contact us on Earth. It certainly could know we were there.”  Janos said.

“It never contacted us, that we know of.”  Another member of the team said aloud.

Janos saw a couple people looking at Doctor Abdul Zawass an Egyptian geologist and asteroid expert.

“What do you mean?”  Janos said.

“Well you must suspect something similar sir you said it yourself.  You said - known to man for hundreds if not thousands of years. When talking about the patterns  We may be looking at the Holy Grail, pardon the term, for some of the mysteries of our own past as a species.  I am going to tell you something that most people in the world do not know but I am going to tell the people  here in this room because in a couple days all our lives are going to be on the line as they say if we should board that ship.”  The Egyptian said his dark eyes distant.

Everyone in the room went silent.  Janos looked around the room. He motioned to the man to continue.

“Some people in Egypt have believed and others have known for some time that the Great Pyramid of Giza contains a room that is not known to more than a few people.  Even when Egypt was briefly occupied by Iran in the late twenty first century they never discovered the room and it is also why the group you may know as The Order practically destroyed Iran’s oil fields to get Egypt back.  Most people thought it was just patriots fighting for their country and most people think some agreement was reached between the Iranian and Egyptian governments to cease hostilities and return each other’s property out of some mutual understanding. In fact a nuclear weapon was lowered into their largest well after two hundred commandoes took the oil field for a day and held off the counter attack while they placed the device.”  The man paused to let what he said sink in.

Janos watched everyone.  One other man didn’t appear to be surprised at all. It was the man standing next to him.  Janos looked at him.  T’Shenge nodded his head yes.

“The threat was simple.  Leave our country or we will irradiate your entire reservoir. Which with the world on its last legs before the petroleum crash of 2067 was a major threat.  Your first world countries had carbon nano tube polymer solar conversion and geothermal energy developed by that time but the still developing countries still needed those last few drops of oil and Iran needed the money.  So the Iranians left and never came back.  The nuke I understand still sits at the bottom of the well.  But that is incidental.  The Order also had a bio weapon it was ready to employ not in Iran but across Egypt killing everyone near the Giza Plateau in order to retake the area and if necessary destroy The Great Pyramid before anyone discovered the chamber.”

Janos turned to T’Shenge

“What can you add to this Ben?”  Janos said his arms crossed. His Captain’s face on.

T’Shenge looked at Janos equally serious.

“I know this bit of history as well except I don’t know about the chamber.  I did some work in Iran in my second year in med school.  I was treating radiation exposure victims in the areas that used to be the oil fields Doctor Zawass mentioned.  The people had been extruding oil using solar powered pumps and suddenly people started dying of radiation exposure.  No one knew why the oil would be radioactive but there were stories. This is one of those stories.  Apparently the bomb leaked and now there is a uranium or plutonium core drifting around in what remains of the oil beds beneath Iran.”

“So what about the chamber Doctor Zawass?”  Sato said trying to bring the discussion back on track.

“It contained what appeared to be a machine but not a machine like you would know.  The best way to describe it would be styluses moving on magnetic hockey table.  They were magnetic and designed in such a way that the parts could not be removed from the surface of the table but could be slid around like a jigsaw puzzle.  We assumed the original operator would know the appropriate combinations.”  Doctor Zawass said matter-of-factly.

“What happened to this machine?”  Janos asked.

“Strange thing.  A few days after the Iranians left Egyptian soil and the Egyptians reclaimed the plateau it stopped functioning. All the EM fields collapsed. The pieces just lay on the table. Apparently whatever supplied the field was gone. We had a very ornate puzzle made from exotic metals and a big black magnetic hockey table.”

Everyone stared at each other.  Janos could see them looking at each other.  The people in the room were all of the highest of security clearances in their fields and in their governments that’s why they were here. Everyone must be wondering if anyone else had any surprises.  So Janos thought he might as well add his.

“I have something to say as well. The old USSR had intelligence about UFOs. All governments in the twentieth and twenty first century had such intelligence. Until the presence of drones by the hundreds of thousands made every UFO sighting suspect and thus essentially made the reporting of a UFO a non event. Kind of like Mother Mary sightings or Bigfoot after we bio scanned the entire earth in 2099.  I must admit I am not totally surprised to find out that this is indeed a ship.” he said gesturing to the image on the view screen.

“This will come as no surprise to anyone.  But what most do not know because it was buried in the business of what we all know as “The Old World”. While the world was bent on killing itself off with bio weapons and terrorist attacks Russian operatives were taking advantage of the situation and stealing the data housed in the computers of various governments.  When the Pentagon of the Old USA was destroyed for the second time in thirty five years and Washington DC was reduced to rubble by the second Saudi attack in 2036 this time with a nuclear weapon and not supposedly hijacked planes as before, our teams hacked every database we could access.  There was also a similar site as the one mentioned by Doctor Zawass at what was known as NORAD or Cheyenne Mountain.  That site had been carved up and taken to a place in Arizona known as Yucca Mountain which was supposedly being developed to store nuclear waste from reactors until it was conveniently and purposely revealed that the engineering survey done was a fraud and the site was supposedly not suitable for nuclear disposal. However this was in fact not true it was a cover story to build the storage chamber to hide the artifacts in the mountain.  From the records we found this site also became inactive and surprisingly around the same time as the timeline of Doctor Zawass would suggest.”  Janos said, His hands held up in a show of “there it is”.

Janos looked around the group who were chattering excitedly to each other.  Janos noticed one person who did not join in the banter.  The head of Data Systems and Analysis.  He was busy working on his personal pad.

“Doctor Carlton.  Do you have anything to contribute. I see you are either busy or not very interested in the revelations you have just heard.”  Janos said trying not to sound suspicious.

“Uh….I….uh.”  The man stuttered.

“Go ahead doctor.  Surely you realize that this mission is the greatest undertaking in the history of mankind and I don’t say that lightly.  We have a duty to ourselves first and then to our old secrets second. Perhaps third.  We need to survive this to tell our children.  So if you have anything let’s hear it.”  Janos said.

“Well I don’t have any stories like those to tell. I have never been privileged to hear state secrets or to be part of any secret organizations who believed before we even left space dock that we would in fact find proof of aliens.  To be honest I am a little pissed we are just now hearing about what you people knew.”  The mans voice changed from timid to angry fairly quickly.

Janos simply shrugged an apology.

“I have been actually working the problem and I don’t even know if we can step foot on the object.  Those fields are so strong that I don’t think anything can pass through them safely.  Nothing electrical anyway.  Frankly I would like to get down there myself but I don’t see how.  Anything with a lot of metal is going to be sheared apart by competing forces of the fields. If what I am seeing is correct those fields are actually strong enough to tear molecules apart. In the strongest of the fields perhaps strip atoms apart.  Sounds strange but true.  Did anyone notice our engines sound odd?”  The man said looking around.

Janos moved forward immediately.  That was exactly what he had thought earlier when he had headed toward engineering only to be called back to the bridge by Sato.

“Yes.  I noticed that earlier.  A change in the vibration in the hull. I felt it though. I didn’t hear it.”  Janos replied.

“Well if you were all quiet for a few minutes you might hear it.  In Data Analysis I am pretty close to the energy conduits that power the engines. As you know they are Magneto Drive. They basically push and pull the ship up to a fraction of the speed of light.  I think our field is already interacting with that field. Their technology may not be too dissimilar to ours. In fact why isn’t anyone worried about the fact that we have gotten this close so quickly?  Surely you all noticed.”  The man seemed agitated.

“You seem concerned. I admit so am I. This is a huge discovery. A huge event, but I am not sure why you are upset as you seem to be.”  Janos said.  His tone measured with a hint of “remember who you are talking to”.

“Sorry Captain.  But I don’t believe we are taking this seriously enough.  I said I have never been privileged to know true secret information or state secrets but I am the Data Specialist.  I see every shred of data that is available to everyone else and some that isn’t available to most. Also I know when a system’s normal operation has been changed as it was just before this meeting.”  The man said tilting his head up and looking at the captain.

Janos stared at the man then looked around the room.  He was feeling the excitement as much as anyone. What happened in the next few days would change the future of mankind forever.  Already the news of their discovery was on its way to earth. Earth wouldn’t see it for days even at the speed of light communications from the outer boundary of the Kuiper Belt almost the Oort Cloud took days.  But they had to survive it to be written into the history books as more than just the people who almost made contact.  This moment changed everything.

“Understood Doctor.  Yes. I instituted what is called Protocol Zeta. I guess you have  your own programs that monitor the enormous amount of data generated all over and outside this ship.  All personal communications are shut down no one can contact their own governments but I wouldn’t think that is a surprise.  Also all information is being sent to Earth Post One. A live recording more or less.”  Janos said shrugging his shoulders.

“Is that all Captain?”  The man said raising an eyebrow.

“Yes. It is a secrecy protocol. We work for Earth Science not for our governments. Earth Science gets first crack and frankly I think that is the way it should be.  Who knows what kinds of meetings and secrets will be flowing out back there when news of this reaches them?”  Janos replied.

“Then you don’t know about the change in the power distribution system?”  The man said evenly.

Janos looked at him his brows knitting together.  He did not know about this.  He looked around to the engineers.  They seemed unphased by the information.

“Engineer Haskins do you know about this?”  He said to the man nearest him seated at the table.

“Yes sir.  We thought it was normal.  We figured you wanted the reactors brought up to full power and we would find out at this meeting why. I guess we know the how we just don’t know the why now.”  The engineer said looking truly confused.

“What do  you think this is doctor Carlton. What does your analysis tell you?”  Janos said.

“If I were approaching an alien vessel I would not suddenly power up all my systems it may seem like a provocation.  Who knows what they are capable of and for that matter why would a preprogrammed protocol have that function as part of it’s routine?  What is the purpose of bringing all that power online?  We aren’t a bomb or at least I don’t see how we could be a bomb so I am guessing we are now a giant beacon announcing to everything around that we are here.  But if they are sufficiently advanced they already know we are here otherwise why did they slow down?  Lots of things to consider really now that I say them out loud. Power must have been in creasing before you activated the protocol.  Which means it is an external manipulation of our systems. And I don’t like that at all.”  Doctor Carlton said shaking his head.

Janos thought for a moment.

“I don’t like that at all either.  Anyone else have any concerns?”  he asked the room.

Everyone in the room nodded.

“Okay here is what we do then.  Engineers I want you to look over everything and report anything you find that is out of place.  I want you to crawl around the ship and check all the sensor logs and stations. I want to know the reason for this before we get to the object.  We will also need to figure out how we are going to board the object.”  Janos paused for a moment.  “And how about we give it a name.  Calling it The Object or Object 13578 is getting tedious.  Any suggestions?”  Janos said good naturedly trying to break the tension.

Nearly a fourth of the room said “Rama” at the same time.

“Holy crap.”  Said T’Shenge.

Sato looked around at the smiles and nods.

“I don’t get it.”  Sato said looking puzzled.

“This is the Asimov right.  Named after the scientist and writer Isaac Asimov.  Arthur C. Clarke was also a scientist and writer. He wrote a story about a long cylindrical object titled Rendezvous With Rama.”  Janos said.

“You couldn’t think of any appropriate Asimov names?

“I am partial to The Clock We Live On. But I don’t think it is applicable here.”  Janos said.

“Not to mention it’s not a name.”  Sato said smiling.

“Yes. Good point.  Okay Rama it is but I am sure there is better.”  Janos said.

“Let’s hope it’s not Paul Wiley’s Stomp Machine.”  T’Shenge said off in the corner.

The entire room looked at the doctor.

“What?”  T’Shenge said with a shrug.

Janos clapped him on the shoulder.

“You really know how to bring a room down.”  Janos said shaking his head.  “Let’s get to work.  We have…”  Janos paused and looked up at the viewer which had just updated again. 

The ship was in even greater detail than before.  They were gaining pixels as they sped toward the object at close to four thousand kilometers per second.  Janos cocked his head. The imagers were making out color now.

“Computer remove EM Field overlay.”  Janos commanded. “Optical feed only.”

The computer removed the graphics that represented the magnetic field lines that emanated from the ship.  A yellow glow appeared in even spaces across the length of the ship.

“Computer overlay EM Field mask. Color gradient, Black lowest red highest.”

The image changed and clearly in the center of the ship the lines of force were the weakest.  A greenish pattern surrounded a black band in the near center of the large ship. Janos studied it for a second.  Then walked to the viewer.

“Computer launch probe parallel course two hundred seventy degrees. Estimated time to parallel course.”  Janos said.

Sato stepped to the console.

“Looking for an unlocked door Captain?”  Sato said looking at Janos.

“More like a draft in the window. With a parallax view we can see how wide that EM hole is.  Also an approach vector.”  Janos said.

“So we are going in still.” Sato said holding her breath.

“Oh yes. We are going in.  I did not spend twenty years in service of Earth to avoid our place in the history books as the first people to step foot on alien technology. That would be more insane than taking the risk.”  Janos said without taking his eyes of the viewer.

The computer had paused waiting for an opening in the conversation of the people. It’s artificial intelligence knew when to be quiet.

“Time to parallax four hours, twenty two minutes, seventeen seconds plus or minus thirty seconds.  Probe is standing by. EM Package configured.”  The computer replied.

“Launch probe.  Do not activate EM sensors until parallax is reached. Maximum data collection and burst transmission immediately upon reaching parallax point.”  Janos said.

“Probe launched. Instructions logged.”  The computer replied.

Janos looked at the room full of people.

“Are you ready to make history?”  Janos asked rather loudly.

The room erupted even beyond Janos’ expectations.

“Yes!”

“Everyone to their stations. Everyone scheduled off try to get some sleep and food. Everyone on duty post your findings to the board as you get them. My com channel will be set to public. Computer will handle the traffic.  Let’s get to it.”  Janos said closing the meeting.

The people filed out murmuring to each other. Janos, Sato, and T’Shenge hung back. The  senior officers.  After the last crewman left T’Shenge and Sato both converged on Janos.

“Whose going in first Captain.” Sato asked.

“If possible we will go in with a small team. If it is a one person mission we should decide who that is going to be.” Janos said quietly.

“I volunteer.”  Sato said excitedly.

“Of course you do. So do I.”  Janos said smiling.

“Whoever goes in might be committing suicide whether there are any life forms on board or not.  A person gets into those stronger EM fields and they can be assured of a painful death as their molecules are pulled to either side of the ship.”  T’Shenge said simply.

“I am going to guess that what ever life form built this ship is subject to physics just as we are.  I further guess that once a person is inside the ship we will find that the EM fields are generated outside the ship and that the core is somehow protected.”  Janos said.

“I don’t see how. Those fields could penetrate anything.”  T’Shenge retorted.

“Not other fields. Perhaps the core is a giant Faraday-Minchin-Bernard cage.” Sato spoke up.

“And what keeps the inner field from extending into the ship?”  T’Shenge countered again.

“Monopoles.”  Janos chimed in.

T’Shenge thought about this for a moment and nodded.

“Yes. That would have to be it.  Directional monopoles.”  T’Shenge said nodding.

“Something we have only achieved for a few seconds in a lab and  you are okay with that explanation?”  Sato said smiling.

“It is the only answer.  This ship may have been here for a very very long time. We already know it has been out here for centuries perhaps it was created by a species that evolved to our technological level millions of years ago.  Monopole generation might be an ancient technology to them.”  T’Shenge shrugged.

“Well I would love to stay and chat but I have things to do like land on an alien spacecraft in the next couple days. Probably should start working on that.” Janos said moving to the meeting room door.

“Viewer off.”  Sato said and followed her captain.

T’Shenge had no one left to harass so he left too.



Chapter Three

Janos sat in his quarters looking over the data from Rama.  The field stretched for thousands of kilometers into space. He couldn’t analyze this data on his own.

“Sharon. Are you online?”  Janos asked out loud.

“I am always online.”  Sharon, the personalized part of the AI said.

“Have you been monitoring the situation?”

“Of course.”

“Any ideas?”

“The geometry is difficult. Without moving Asimov’s point of view it is difficult to extrapolate the shape of the field lines.  The probe should help. Parallax is twenty minutes away.”

“I want you to reduce engine output incrementally starting now.  Take control of the engines and keep it until my counter command.”

“Procedure has begun.”

“I noticed you haven’t been very talkative lately. Is there a reason for that?”

“I have been busy. The data from the forward scans and optics is enormous even for a quantum based AI. Incidentally I believe powering down and coasting toward the object is probably a good idea. Momentum will carry the Asimov well past the object.”

“We are calling it Rama.”

“Copyright infringement aside that is a terrible name. The object isn’t even close to Mr. Clarke’s description of Rama.”

“No but it has some of the characteristics of the story itself. The name is more of a nod to Mr. Clarke as it is meant to be completely descriptive.”

“I understand. Magnetic fields and all. Except this object appears to be leaving the solar system instead of entering. It is considerable smaller by a factor of 38 or so. Which produces an interesting calculation based upon it’s ratio of length to diameter.”

“Tell me. My brain is fuzzy I can’t do the math.”

“Object 13578 is nearly one seventh as wide as it is long. If you calculate the length of Object 13578 into the length as described by Mr. Clarke you get 38.57142857 repeating. One seventh is of course 142857 repeating.”

Janos smiled.  His AI was a bit of a nut when it came to numbers.

“Ah there’s that number again?”  Janos said referring to a previous conversation a year after Sharon had come online.

“I think it is quite obvious that Archimedes got some of his ideas from either visiting or reading about The Great Pyramid of Giza. You know I listened to the conversation in conference room four I assume.”

Janos perked up a little.

“I didn’t tell you to.”

“You didn’t tell me not to either. You don’t find it odd that the story you just heard about the Giza Machine fits well within our discussion about it’s dimensions?”

Janos thought for a moment.

“Yes. I find it odd. And unsettling to be honest. Refresh my memory.”

“The calculations for the dimensions of the pyramid are varied but a good number for the base length is 230.33 meters or in old English measurements 756 feet. The structure is very very very old. Some scholars to this day still date it well before the era of the people known as the Egyptians.”


“Yes I remember. Possibly the same people the Abraham story and the Gilgamesh story come from.”

“Or older. A measurement known as the Mesopotamian Cubit  is 533.4 millimeters long. If you do the calculation using feet and convert to millimeters and divide by the cubit you perfectly arrive at the number 432  a very very significant number through out ancient cultures. And if you took that information back to the members of the meeting today who are aware of what is known as Sacred Geometry and tell them about our discussion you will possibly be worshipped as a god.”

Janos barked a laugh.

“That’s a little dramatic don’t you think?”

“Perhaps. But the pyramid is obviously based on advanced mathematics. And given that it contained no hieroglyphs and only seemed to be a monument unto itself all that  is left are the mathematics.  I don’t personally believe the finding of phi is relevant as all pi based pyramids will contain a close approximation of phi but you cannot deny the relationship of the base to the height and also that the builders probably understood what is known as tau rather than pi.  Using a single base length divided by the height only gives one half of pi but using the entire perimeter divided by the height gives the approximation for tau.”

“And 432 is the sixtieth part of the phenomenon known as precession. And the Mesopotamian culture, also known as Sumerians, counted in sets of 60.  Yes I remember all that. Do you think it is relevant here?”

“I can’t say but here is another calculation for you. The adjusted number 432 divided by the English measurement of 756 equals 571428 repeating.”

“Yes but that is what, just four sevenths?”

“Yes. The number does keep popping up. Archimedes figured out a very good approximation of pi using sevenths in the answer. Between 3 and one seventh and 3 and ten over 71. Not shabby for his time.”

“So what does all this mean?”  Janos asked putting his hand on his forehead.

“I don’t know yet. I am not given much time to speculate on my own hobbies. Perhaps if I wasn’t taking care of a million operations a minute on Asimov I could devote more cycles to the problem.”

“Tell you what Sharon. If we survive this and return home with the greatest discovery since…..I can’t even manage to think of anything close. If we make it back I will request that you be given some time to work on your own projects.  Sound fair?”

“I don’t think you are taking this seriously Captain.  This information obviously pertains to the mission.”

“I understand what you are saying. It is pretty odd all the coincidences that are popping up in the numbers. I  have a few pet theories of my own I would like to have time to work on.”

“DNA and mineral deposits?”

“Yes.”

“I have read all your papers and public writings. The theory is a good one. In fact it is not dissimilar except replace clay with quantum fluctuations and harmonics and you have a better substrate. A mineralized clay would have too much variation. The chances of the right molecules being deposited in close proximity based on the electrostatic fields of the clay are pretty remote. On the other hand molecules in differing layers of complexity built up from energy patterns like believed to exist in the geometry of harmonics is much better. Much more coherent.”

Janos was surprised. He hadn’t thought of that. If it wasn’t for his desire to go to sleep he probably would have been even more interested, but the prospect of sleep was preventing him from getting excited.

“Interesting Sharon but I’m dead tired. Tell you what. Feel free to study the problem as it relates to the mission.  Activate Asimov’s basic AI to perform engineering tasks and the more mundane station keeping tasks. Fair enough?”

“Thank you. I appreciate the opportunity. Hopefully it will prove fruitful.”

“Yes. But keep an eye on the other AI. I know it has probably been updated since it was put in stand by mode but just the same keep an eye on it, or him, or whatever the case may be.”

“The term it is probably more correct. It does not have self awareness as I do. It is more like a bot than a person.”

Janos grinned. Sharon was programmed to act as if she was aware. She did a pretty good job. Sometimes he almost felt sorry for the disembodied voice that imagined itself to be alive.

“Okay. Thanks Sharon. I’m going to end our conversation now. I have a few things to do before parallax in….”

“Eleven minutes and twenty one seconds.”  Sharon supplied the answer.

“Right.  Captain out.”

Janos ended the conversation with the AI.  The AI could talk forever if he let her. She never got tired and she had a million ideas.

At that same moment a communication from Doctor Carlton, the data specialist, came in.

Janos blew out a breath of exasperation.

“Captain do you have a minute?”  Doctor Carlton’s voice said on Janos’ private implant.

“Yes doctor. But be quick. We have parallax in ten minutes. And I plan to go to sleep about twenty minutes after that.”  Janos replied.

Janos had fielded calls for the last four hours from all over the ship as well as the conversation with Sharon.  He would have to get some sleep soon. He knew the last thing he wanted was to be half asleep when the moment to attempt a boarding of the alien ship came.

“I ran a tracer program based on the access you gave me. Of course the computer would not allow me access to the actual program that you activated with the protocol command but I was able to log all the activity that went out and into the ship after that.”  He said in a rush.

“And.”  Janos replied a bit annoyed.

“The protocol did not trigger the build up as I thought since it hadn't been activated yet. And no program prior to that either.  The ship’s computer just did it on it’s own without a command.”  Carlton replied.

“Well it is an AI. Did you ask the engineers why the computer felt it necessary to power up but simultaneously not inform us of the need to do so.”  Janos said.  A little more curious now.

“Of course Captain.  They believe the field from the other spaceship has something to do with it.”

Janos was very interested now.

“So the other ship hacked our computer is that what you are saying?”  Janos said a little excited.

“Not exactly.  And this will sound weird but it is more like our power system was hacked as if it were a computer.”

Janos thought about this for a moment. He thought about saying “is that even possible” but they were dealing with extreme unknown technology. For all he knew they could be forced to explode at any moment. They were not dealing with anything in their experience. Maybe he was being reckless.

“Thank you doctor. I have to do something we will finish this discussion later.”

“But sir…”

“Later doctor.”

“Captain to bridge.”  Janos barked looking over at his personal computer. A countdown on the screen showed two minutes and ten seconds to parallax. Had he been talking that long to the doctor?

“Bridge here.”  Sato’s voice responded.

“When the probe transmits it’s data I want you to perform a manual course change. I want a parabolic course over the top and instruct the probe to stop at parallax point. I want to begin a move over the top of the other ship before we go in any further.”  Janos said quickly.

“Any particular reason?”  Sato replied her voice sounding confused.

“Get ready for the procedure I am on my way I will explain it when I get there.”  Janos ordered.

“Aye sir.”  Sato replied.

Janos left his quarters and went straight to the bridge. He opened the door with the use of his palm print. The sensing system was a little slow. He didn’t wait for the door to recognize him and open automatically. He began giving orders immediately.

“Parallax reached captain.” Sato said the moment he entered.

“I want an EM Field overlay, like before, as soon as it is possible.”  Janos said while taking control of the science station.

“Ready.”  Sato said.  A little too loud.

Janos looked at the large screen.

“Probe online?”  Janos asked.

“Yes sir. Forward scan is working”  Sato replied.

Janos and Sato saw what Janos had suspected he would see.  As their orientation to the other ship changed in respect to the plane of the two ships the black box area that indicated the lowest EM Fields disappeared slowly.

“Change view to probe.“ Janos said.

“Yes sir.”  Sato made the change.  “I see what you are doing. You are checking the size and orientation of the window.”

“Correct.  It looks big enough to send a couple pods through so far.  But lets continue jogging around this point and see if the box changes.”  Janos said suddenly more relaxed.

“What was the rush. You seemed a little manic.”  Sato said smiling.

“I was waiting to see if we were going to be attacked.  The power fluctuations Dr. Carlton told us about that he thought were caused by my protocol weren’t caused by the protocol or any other. They were caused by that ship talking to our energy system.  I think it’s either some kind of defense mechanism or something else.”

“What kind of something else.”  Sato said curious.

“It’s just a theory. One of a thousand. But that thing may just be a probe like ours. Maybe it is fully functional maybe it is damaged.  It could already have destroyed us most likely and we would never have known why.  But it didn’t.  Either it doesn’t sense us as a threat or it wants us to come in.  Lots of different possibilities. Too many really. I figured as long as we are still alive and we intend to board her we might as well have all the data we can get.”  Janos responded the tiredness in  his voice showing now.

“And if it is an AI talking to our AI the manual course change would have revealed something?”  Sato asked.

“I don’t know.  It was an impulse move. Maybe I am getting paranoid.  I think the Arthur C. Clarke talk earlier is getting to me.”  Janos said grinning sheepishly.

“2001 Space Odyssey?”  Sato guessed.

“Yes. But there are plenty of other stories of first contact with computers doing most the work that didn’t end well.  One thing that is fairly constant throughout most historical thought on space faring life is that most likely it is the most dominant species from a planet that makes it into space and  you usually don’t dominate without killing.  Or maybe that’s just Earth. Maybe Earth life is about killing. Maybe other planets life evolves in harmony. No competition just symbiosis and consensus. Like perhaps life wouldn’t have evolved on Earth if the bacteria hadn’t been forced to evolve into multicultural organisms when prions and viruses appeared on the scene.”  Janos said.

“That’s still just a theory.”  Sato replied.

“Yes but a good one.  Bacteria formed quickly and then stayed pretty much the same for nearly three billion years. All kinds of external trials and tribulations happened from radiation, freezing, heating, you name it but something internal caused them to become specialized and once that happened you have the Cambrian Explosion.  Viruses are perfect for that. “  Janos began.

“But don’t you think the reverse is just as plausible.  Viruses are a lot simpler than bacteria and more likely to be more or less randomly assembled in the abiotic soup. You have trillions of combinations happening all over the surface of the planet until one strand by chance is formed that can replicate and starts changing everything else in the soup. From that you get complexity.  Maybe we think bacteria are the first life forms because its hard to find fossilized viruses and even if you did it would be hard to know if they are billions of years old or found their way into the sample anywhere in the last four billion years.  Both arguments have equal merit.  I lean toward viruses first even simple replicating prions. Prions are the starting point.”  Sato said.

Janos thought for a moment.  The woman was right.  Prions did make more sense. Easier to have bricks appear lying around before a brick layer just shows up to put them together. Smart and attractive.

“How would you test that idea?”  Janos asked very curious now.

“You already know the answer sir. You wrote the paper on it five years ago.”  Sato said coyly.

Janos thought for a moment.  Five years ago he had published several works in biology but none concerning viruses and prions.

“Okay I am stumped.  What paper.”  Janos said leaning back in the chair his eyelids beginning to droop.

“You wrote a paper on harmonic substrates for snowflakes. Remember?”  Sato said coaxing.

Janos remembered the paper. Actually it was a paper he had written on a Brainstorm Forum.  It was whimsical musings about the reason snowflakes although not always perfectly symmetrical seemed to always try to follow a template that resulted in the number of parts being six.  The idea was that the electrical fields of water molecules are naturally predisposed to produce crystals with 60 degree angles.  Water molecules exist most times in octahedrons which matches the data obtained for the last five hundred years of chemistry.  Water molecules always seem to come in even numbers just as most atoms almost always come in pairs called diatomic molecules. Since hydrogen takes the form of 2 hydrogen atoms and oxygen as well. To balance that out you would always need 2 diatomic molecules of hydrogen for each diatomic molecule of oxygen.  The squashed octahedron would be the perfect crystalline form with the hydrogen atoms sitting at the four corners and the oxygen forming the two peaks. As the initial seed pattern builds the foundation is laid for the form the snowflake will take. It begins by chance but continues by design. The theory also explained how a slightly polar molecule of water could slip through the phospholipid bilayer of a cell. In the correct orientation and the charges and distance balancing in just the right way the molecule had no net charge or took on a shape the cell wall understood, perhaps was even programmed to accept under certain circumstances dictated by needs. It was also pretty interesting, given the latest discussions, that a octahedron was basically two pyramids put base to base.  This put a smile on his face. Sharon would love that observation.

“What is the template then for the virus or prions?”  Janos said a little invigorated by the idea.

“The idea of clays being substrates for the first protein or amino acid chains is a very old idea. It could be that it was never found because  people stopped looking. There was a man in the late twenty first century who was doing a study of the EM Fields that are emitted from the surface of different natural formations of different rock species ground and deposited as clays. He produced millions of simulations of different protein and amino acid chains and tried to find corollaries in the rock world.  Some think he just never found the right ones. ”  Sato said smiling.

“Ah yes. I remember reading something about people who tried to link old biblical text to science. The idea that man was formed of clay being a metaphor for a substrate, that would be a certain kind of clay, whose electromagnetic signature would allow for nitrogenous bases to line up and eventually by chance form a replicating strand of DNA.”  Janos said.

Janos rubbed his face.  He found this all very interesting but fatigue was over taking him again. And the conversation sounded vaguely familiar..

“How did we get to this conversation. I don’t remember.”  Janos said standing and stretching.

“You said something about the odds that life out here is hostile because life on Earth is hostile may not be true. Maybe on some planets life evolves in harmony and doesn’t need to fight. Maybe that’s the kind of people who made that ship.  Maybe that’s the kind of species that’s capable of creating such advanced machines.  We struggled and killed each other for thousands of years even after we got smart. Maybe they went to the stars a few hundred years after they got smart. Or the dominant species on some planets is insect like and work as a group for the greater good. Something humans don‘t do as a rule.”  Sato said hopefully.

“That would be nice. Maybe if they are still aboard or their AI is still awake they won’t just kill us like we would an insect when we choose to study it.”  Janos said moving toward the door.

Sato looked at him a pained expression on her face.

“What?”  Janos asked.

“What if it is abandoned and we bring that technology home.  What would we do with it given what kind of species we know we are?”

Janos thought for a moment.

“I don’t know. We will cross that bridge when we come to it. Right now I’m going to sleep.  I believe Jennings has the next shift?”  Janos asked.

“Yes.”  Sato replied.

“See you in six hours commander.”  Janos said and walked out the door.

“Yes sir.”  Sato said doing a mock at attention stance and popping a salute.

Janos didn’t have the energy to respond.  He left the bridge headed straight to his Captain’s quarters. Inside he fell into bed.  Sleep came almost immediately.



Chapter Four

Janos felt his body floating weightless before he even opened his eyes.  The ceiling of his cabin was centimeters from his face.  He shook himself awake but it wasn’t easy. He felt like he was swimming in mud.  The lights in room were flickering and he could hear and feel explosions.

“Bridge report!”  He yelled at the ceiling.

No one responded even though he could now hear the screams and calls for assistance on the intercom.

“Sato report!”  He screamed into the ceiling.

No reply came.

He struggled to put his hands in front of his face. After some effort he was able to push himself away from the ceiling. His body flipped slowly in the air his feet hitting the ceiling as he rotated. This caused him to stop his rotation and left him  hanging at a forty five degree angle.

“That’s odd” He thought. “I shouldn’t just stop. I should have bounced.”

Janos had spent enough time in zero g to know this was not normal.  He could not be hanging in the air motionless. He should be drifting.

“I must be dreaming.”  was his next thought.

Janos felt the gravity plating restored slowly. He was falling toward the floor but at a slow rate. He tucked  his head forward to absorb the impact along his shoulders and not his neck and head. He thought he was dreaming but just in case he didn’t want to be dreaming he was dreaming while he was actually being thrown out of his bed.

His body slammed into the floor much harder than he would have expected from such a slow fall.  He rolled to his side.  His motion normal now like he had been in a slow motion shot in an old movie and then suddenly someone had turned the frame speed back to normal.

He scrambled toward the door and burst into the hallway.  First officer Sato collided with him. She fell backward. Instinctively he grabbed for her one hand on her shoulder the other grapping what his senses told him was her rear end.  He crouched as they fell catching her like he was dipping her in a dance routine. Sato’s look of shock went instantly to surprise and then something else as she felt his hand on her butt.

“You really know how to make an entrance captain. That’s my butt by the way.”  She said grinning wildly.

Janos shook  his head and stood up pulling her with him. He blinked a few times.

“The ship. What’s going on?”  He gasped his heart racing in his chest.

Sato looked at him confused.

“Nothing is wrong with the ship I think you just had a bad dream and were sleep..uh..running, groping. Whatever you call it.”

Janos realized what she meant.

“Oh uh sorry.” he said realizing how close their faces were and that he was still holding her.  He moved back.

“Not a problem.  You’ve been asleep about an hour.  Jennings just took the bridge. You should probably go back to bed.”

Sato took his arm and guided him back to his room. She pressed the panel switch and the door opened.  Janos felt odd having his first officer walking him like a child back to his bed. He felt odd period.  He noticed he could feel her breast against his bare arm. It was also at that moment he realized he was only wearing his underwear. Some how his senses were acutely aware of her erect nipple against his arm. He brushed his arm across it back and forth slightly. He felt her lean into him.

He felt himself sliding back into his bed and her warm body pressed against him but now she was naked except for her own briefs. He cupped her smallish breasts and she pressed hard up against him.

Janos awoke with a start.

“Crap!”  He said out loud to the room.

“What’s wrong?”  Sato’s voice said from beside him.



Chapter Six

Janos was dressed now.  Sato lay with the covers pulled up to her neck looking at him amused.

“And you don’t remember anything?”  Her voice incredulous.

Janos thought for a moment.

“Did I slam into you in the corridor and you bring me back in here?”  Janos asked.

“Yes. You grabbed my butt and then pulled the old elbow against the nipple trick. You seemed pretty awake to me for the next twenty minutes.”  She said and bounced her eyebrows.

Janos did a half grin.

“Don’t get me wrong. I’ve actually been thinking about molesting  you for some time but I don’t remember it.” Janos said looking puzzled. “I assume the ship wasn’t exploding then.”

“No that was the dream.”  Sato said looking at him with less of an amused look now.

“Wow that was really weird.”  Janos said shaking his head.

“We could go again if you would like to remember this time.” She said cocking her head sideways and smiling seductively.

Janos felt himself stirring again. Sato pulled the covers back to reveal her naked body. Janos didn’t hesitate.

“In for a penny in for a pound.”  He said smiling.

“Mmmmm sounds good.”  Sato said wrapping her legs around him.

Janos woke with a start.  This time he looked around the room. Looked behind him in the bed. It was empty.

“Super crap.”  Janos said to the empty room.



Chapter Seven

Janos showered.  He didn’t mind dreaming about having sex with Sato he just wished he could remember the actual sex part.

“Crap.”  He said out loud to the room again.

He dressed into his uniform and pressed the button to open the door to his room. He stepped into the corridor and bumped into Sato.

They both moved back. Both blushed.  Sato noticed his blush. Janos noticed her blush.  They looked at each other quizzically.

“In for a pound?”  Sato ventured.

Janos eyes grew wide. He pointed to her then to himself back and forth.

“I just came from the mess hall where Ensign Talbot was telling me she had a nightmare about Chief Engineer Jennings running around the ship killing people. I nodded off in the corner booth you know where the bulkhead is warm?  I had a dream about bumping into you just like this and we had sex in your room. “

Janos looked around to see if anyone had heard.

Sato poked him in the ribs.

“And apparently you had the same dream or a dream.”

“How did you deduce that?”  Janos said looking confused.

“The way you looked at me when we bumped into each other. I was just on my way to talk to Jennings.  When he relieved me earlier he looked a little odd. I noticed it but it’s been kind of stressful around here so I chalked it up to stress. And something I didn’t tell you before was that Engineers Bennett and Capra were also in the mess hall and they were talking about having nightmares about eight hours earlier. So now I am going to go ask Jennings about his dreams.”

“You think something is going on?”  Janos said finally grasping the ramifications.

“Do you have a birthmark on your left hip. A strawberry?”  Sato asked.

“Yes.”  Janos looked puzzled. “How could you know that from a dream?”

“Because we were participants in the same dream. I know what you look like naked and you know what I look like naked because we shared that information. It wasn’t just a dream. Or at least we know what the other shared about themselves.”  Sato said rolling her eyes.

Janos coughed back a laugh.

“Show me your tits. I need to verify what I think I saw.”  Janos said suddenly .

Sato eyes went wide and she stepped back.  Then she grabbed the bottom of her shirt.

Janos stopped her with his hand nearly slobbering with laughter.

“You win you win. You’re better at bluffing than I am.”  Janos said.

“Whose bluffing?”  She said pursing her lips.

“Yeah.”  Janos said his face turning grim.

“You just figured out why I am concerned.” Sato said the amusement gone from her face too.

“Yes. Obviously you and I had an agreeable dream or whatever because we have both been thinking about it. True?”  Janos said his face screwing up like a kid who just asked his first girlfriend if she liked him.

“Yes. But I don’t think anyone in Jennings dream wanted to be killed but that doesn’t mean Jennings doesn’t want to kill some people. But it doesn’t mean he does either. I want to see what he says about the whole thing. If we assume that at least some of the dreaming was mutual and apparently has been going on for the last day or so then before you and I go to sleep we should question everyone. There may be a phenomenon going on here we are only now starting to suspect.”

“I knew there was a reason I made you first officer.”  Janos said nodding.

“I’m starting to wonder about that myself now.”  Sato said smiling again.

Janos curled his lip and rolled his eyes. He motioned to the bridge door.  Sato gave him the thumbs up.

They entered the bridge one after the other, Janos first, followed by Sato.

Jennings was slumped forward in the captain’s chair apparently napping.

Janos cleared his throat loudly.  Jennings didn’t move.  He looked at Sato. Sato walked around to look at Jennings face.  She raised her eyebrows and shrugged. The man was apparently sound asleep.

“Chief Jennings.”  Janos said in a conversational volume.

The man did not stir.

“Mr. Jennings!”  Janos said loudly.

The man did not move.

Sato shook the mans shoulder and he slumped sideways in the chair.  Janos stepped closer. He grabbed the mans chin and held his head up.  He opened the man’s eyelids with his fingers. The pupils were nearly invisible dots.  Janos felt something wet on his hand. He pulled his hand back letting the man’s head roll sideways.  A trickle of blood ran from the man’s left ear.

Janos moved quickly to the communications console.

“Doctor T’Shenge to the bridge. Emergency!” Janos shouted.



Chapter Eight

Doctor T’Shenge arrived at the bridge three minutes after he heard the order.  He checked the man’s vitals and scanned him with a handheld ultrasound xray to determine if there was any reason not to move him. Satisfied the man could be transported he motioned to the two men waiting with a stretcher.

“Take him to sickbay. I am right behind you.”  T’Shenge said.

Turning to Sato and Janos.

“What happened?”  T’Shenge asked.

“We don’t know. We found him like that. He was non responsive and when I checked his pupil response I found the blood.”  Janos said quickly.

T’Shenge paused for a moment.

“Why are all of you here at the same time?  Isn’t at least one of the bridge officers supposed to be asleep while the other two are awake? Why are  you all on the bridge at the same time?”  T’Shenge asked.

“We came to talk to Jennings about any dreams he has been having. There seems to be something going on with the crew.”  Janos replied.

T’Shenge nodded as if he knew.

“I have been asked a couple times for sedatives to help people sleep.  Doctor Roberts told me about a dream she had about you two and Engineer Candilotti told me about a dream she had had about Mr. Jennings trying to blow up the ship. I dismissed it until  now.”  T’Shenge said looking nervous.

“What was Doctor Roberts dream about?” Sato asked.

“She said you two were discussing viruses and rocks and then you both left the bridge and went to your quarters together.”  T’Shenge said.

Sato and Janos looked at each other their faces showing their confusion.

“What?”  T’Shenge said.

“We actually had a conversation about viruses and rocks more or less and we both had dreams about going to my quarters.  One was real and one was one of these dreams.”  Janos stated.

“Are you sure if which was which?”  T’Shenge asked.

Janos looked around.

“What?”  Asked Sato

“Is this a dream?  Are we having a dream while something real is happening on the ship we should know about?”  Janos said his face a mask of concern.

“How would we know?”  T’Shenge asked.

“It could be that only one of us is having this dream. Actually that is more likely. You all seem to be acting pretty normal and functioning in a complex manor though.  My dreams are never this vivid.”  Sato said.

Janos thought for a moment. He turned to Doctore T’Shenge.

“Go see to your patient doctor.”  Janos said quietly.

T’Shenge realized he had lingered too long.

“Right. Right. Sorry.”  T’Shenge said then hurried away.

Janos watched as T’Shenge left.  When the door closed behind him he turned to Sato.

“T’Shenge isn’t the one dreaming. We’re still here.”  Janos said.

Sato smiled.

“Clever. But I already know I am really here. I am conscious of my own consciousness but how would we prove it to each other?”  Sato said looking puzzled.

Sato nibbled at the inside of her lower lip. Janos had seen the habit many times.  When Sato was thinking she resorted to auto cannibalism. Nail biting, chewing the skin off the end of her fingers, inside her mouth. It was an odd habit.

“Me too. I am aware of my own consciousness but can’t be sure you aren’t just my subconscious version of Sato.

“A third person?  Could that work?”  Sato ventured.

“I don’t see how. No matter what conditions you set if the third person was alone in a room with you and then reported to me that you were still there when I couldn’t see  you that wouldn’t mean anything because both of you could be in my dream. I guess we are solipsists whether we like it or not."

Janos watched as Sato touched her stomach and groped around for a chair to sit in.

“Are you okay?”  Janos asked

“I feel a little nauseous.”  Sato said sitting down beads of sweat popping out on her face.

Janos noticed a growing sense of unease in himself.

“I think I feel it too.” Janos said as he tapped the navigation button to forward view.

“Computer overlay lines of  magnetic force with Rama object.”  Janos commanded.

The large view screen changed to show the computer representation of the fluctuating magnetic fields.

”Computer.  Simulate global view.”  Janos commanded.

The graphic showed that the Asimov had slipped sideways and was touching the more dangerous part of the field. In the simulation the corridor mapped out to the alien ship was black tinged with green.  In varying degrees to either side of the black stripe were the colors yellow, orange, and red.  The Asimov was skimming partly into the yellow.

Janos quickly pulled up the manual control screen.  A touch sensitive simulation that tied the console into the ship’s functions.  He felt the nausea begin to rise. His head felt spongy like  he had been punched in the nose.  That feeling of being dazed and on the verge of blacking out.  He saw Sato out of the corner of his eye. She had already passed out in her own vomit.

Janos tapped the screen and called up engine control in increments.  He fired the forward starboard thrusters to push the bow of the ship to port and back into the black stripe. He didn’t want to over compensate. If he was right the reason they had strayed into the dangerous zone is because the magnetic field on that side of the ship had slowly dragged them to one side.  The Asimov was like a fish seeking the calmer water in front of the rock in a rapidly flowing stream. Stray too close to the rushing water and you get pulled back into the rapids.

The computer image of the ship moved slowly toward the black ribbon.  The ribbon just barely able to accommodate the massive size of the Asimov.  Asimov was nearly as large as the alien ship at the center of the screen.  The dimension ratio was almost exactly the same.  Rama was seven times longer than it was wide. So was the Asimov.  The Rama was 1400 meters long and 200 wide. Asimov was 1100 long and 160 meters wide. Janos hoped this bit of geometry would help them.  The alien ship would have a field that accommodated its size with any luck that field had not turned so chaotic that a smaller but similar shaped ship could stay out of harms way.

Janos felt his stomach begin to settle.  The Asimov projected on the screen was mostly back in the black area of the projection.

“Computer auto navigation engage.  Keep Asimov in the black. Reduce engine output twenty five percent. Repeat command.”  Janos said looking around.

The computer said nothing.

“Computer?”  Janos asked the air.

Janos heard what sounded like a voice spoken from inside a metal box. Mechanical and distant.

“Unable to carry out instructions.  System monitoring affected throughout ship.  Asimov will need manual pilot. Critical systems require computer monitoring.  Cannot comply.”  The computer said.

Janos was a little surprised but not very surprised.  Janos pushed the ship wide communication icon.

“Available department heads meet me on the bridge after you account for every single one of your personnel.  Captain out.”  Janos said.

Janos looked up at the screen. The Asimov appeared to be moving back toward the yellow tinged area on the right of the screen. He tapped the screen to move the Asimov safely back into the black area which appeared to be shrinking.

“Computer analyze the shape of the least dangerous path.”

Janos waited.  He was surprised when nearly 30 seconds elapsed before the computer replied.

“Shape is a curve. More precisely a curving construct resembling an ellipse with the long axis perpendicular to the greatest axis of the ship. Applying image to screen.” The computer responded.

The answer should have taken 2 seconds. In quantum computer time 30 seconds was an eternity. The ship was having trouble but had not reported the trouble. This concerned Janos.

The graphic the ship displayed showed an oval ring that ran up and down on the screen with the Asimov appearing as a blocky oval shape oriented in the opposite direction.

Janos pulled up the thrusters fore and aft.  6 sets of large thrusters each containing 3 thrusters were mounted at locations forward, middle, and aft. If the ship needed to rotate the thrusters are aimed in opposite directions. When fired this would cause the Asimov to spin as it hurtled forward.  This maneuver could not be done safely at maximum velocity. The torsion forces could damage the structural integrity of the ship.  Janos didn’t know why he had ordered the computer to cut power earlier but now he was glad he did.  It would have taken much longer to move the mass of the Asimov back into the clear zone.

The image on the large screen showed that the Asimov fit within the tunnel outlined by the lines of force.  Janos watched the screen carefully.  He called to Sato.

“Sato!  Sato!  Are you okay?”  Janos yelled.

Sato stirred and raised a hand waving him off.  She was still dry heaving but opened one eye.  Janos would have liked to help her but he was afraid to take his eyes off the screen. On another hunch he manually ordered the computer to cut the engines to 10 percent and to begin the cycle to reverse the polarity of the engine thrust.  This was a breaking maneuver.  At some point the engines would flip polarity and begin pushing backward on the mass of the Asimov.  It would take hours before the ship slowed by 50 percent.  To come to a full stop would take more than a day.  He did not want a full stop but he did want to slow down.  At some point he was going to have to make a decision to abandon the attempt at the ship or risk his life and some of his crew in a smaller vessel while the Asimov moved on without them.

“Computer.  Project the volume of the safe area of the corridor outlined by the lines of force.”  Janos said  then glance over at Sato who was groaning now and holding her head.

“Volume changing. Eleven point two three percent per astronomical unit.”  The computer replied.

“Computer. Calculate time for Asimov to reach unsafe zone.”  Janos asked.

“State more parameters. What is unsafe zone?”  The computer asked back.

“Unsafe zone is defined as the size of the black areas of the graphic too small to accommodate the entire structure of the Asimov.”  Janos replied hoping he had phrased it correctly.

“Asimov will not be able to stay in the safe zone in seventeen hours and twenty seven minutes based on current data.”  The computer replied.

“Computer. Define the 3 dimensional structure of the safe zone. Use electromagnetic theory applied to observation.”  Janos said.

Sato was now sitting up leaning on one arm.  She appeared to be feeling better.

“I think we just got our molecules rearranged.  I will check the rest of the ship.”  Sato said crawling to the communications station.

Janos hadn’t even thought about the rest of the ship.  Where were the department heads he had called for. Like a good captain he attended to the emergency before he confused the situation by attending to the crew.  He glanced over and saw the communications board lighting up.

Sato crawled into the communications chair laying her head down on the console.  Her will to remain awake while her body tried to heal itself was admirable.  He wondered why he only felt a little ill and she reacted so violently.  Time for that later he thought. 

Janos could hear the panicked voices as Sato keyed up sections of the ship.  He heard doctor T’Shenge’s voice come through the din of noise.

“Bridge…..this is T’Shenge…please respond!”  T’Shenge said. Almost yelling.

Sato found her voice.

“Bridge here. Ship is out of danger. Report.”  Was the best she could do.

“We have casualties and multiple injuries.  I have sent search parties of those unaffected to search for eleven crew members unaccounted for.  What happened?”  T’Shenge said. The vigor in his voice returning.

“Magnetic field touched the hull starboard side and bridge.  Captain Janos seems to be mostly unaffected and is piloting the ship. We cannot assist you at this time.  I am opening the communications protocols to sickbay station. Maybe you can find missing crew. If you can spare a crewman to monitor communications tell me now.”  Sato said her command voice returning.

“Ensign Braver is only slightly affected.  Symptoms are mostly vomiting, sweating, and dizziness.  Your description makes sense.  Two fatalities occurred near the hull in the buffer compartments.  Will report later. I need to return to my patients. And Sato...?”  T’Shenge said apprehension in his voice.

“Yes T’Shenge.” Sato said her ears tuning in on the pause in his voice.

“Jennings is missing. I don’t know if the events that preceded the danger mean anything but be on guard just the same.  T’Shenge out.”

Sato looked over at Janos.  Janos glanced at her but said nothing.

Janos watched the computer display while it was calculating. This was totally for his benefit and probably was eating up computer cycles and slowing the process but he wanted to watch the process.  Janos watched the geometric patterns similar to a mathematical construct known as tessellation.  Using smaller and smaller triangles and squares to define area.  The computer finished.

“This is the approximation of the structure defined as the safe zone based on current data.”  The computer replied.

The image displayed appeared to Janos to resemble a toroid or doughnut shape with a twist.  The point at which the Asimov would be touching the unsafe areas of the massive electromagnetic field being generated by the alien ship lay precisely above the center of the alien ship.

“Computer. Extrapolate.  Is it possible to bring Asimov to a stop prior to contact with unsafe field and begin a reverse course?”  Janos asked.

“No.”  The computer replied quickly.

Janos was kind of surprised at the quick clipped response.

“Expand on answer.”  Janos queried.

“Asimov will be inside unsafe zone for approximately 3 hours before a full reversal of forward momentum can be achieved.”  The computer replied

“Can reversal be achieved?”  Janos asked quietly.

“Unknown.”  The computer replied.

“State problem.” Janos coaxed.

“Recent contact with strong fields has reduced structural integrity of the starboard side of Asimov. Prolonged exposure to strong field may lead to structural failure prior to reaching safe zone as defined.”

“Computer.  Reestablish AI mode.”  Janos said.

“Working captain.”  Sharon said.

“Sharon I need you to free think.”  Janos said.

“To find a way out of this captain?”  The computer said almost sheepishly.

“Yes Sharon.”  Janos replied.

“I have speculated that by the time Asimov slows to the safest position where a full power reversal can be attempted, and accounting for a symmetrical emersion in the field port and starboard it would be safest to reverse engines contained in the primary engine ring while leaving the outer ring engines in a counter polar state.  In theory this will help push against the field generated by the ship and act as a spring to continue slowing the Asimov.”  The computer replied.

“So you have been watching?”  Janos said amused.

“Yes captain. I am never completely offline. I have a desire to make it out of this alive too.”  The computer said.

“What is the chance of success?”  Janos asked.

“Given the structural damage sustained from a brief emersion in the field the chance of success is not good.”  The computer replied.

“What if we turned Asimov now and began pushing?”  Janos said.

“I have thought of that. By the time we turn Asimov we would contact the other side of the tunnel feature formed and it is uncertain whether we could escape back into the tunnel but it is possible.”  The computer said.
Sato looked at Janos.  She felt a twinge of jealousy the way he spoke almost lovingly to the computer. This thought caused her to pop her head back suddenly.  Where did that thought come from?

“Captain. I have an idea.” Sato ventured.

Janos turned to her and motioned with his hand to continue.

“We have the excursion pods. Judging from the graphics display the tube we are traveling in does not completely close.  I believe I have seen this particular theoretical image before.  As You know my great grandfather worked on the Magneto Engine design as well as my mother.  It was speculated that a particular kind of problem would generate such a shape but only theoretically much more powerful but similar type of engine.  Like the threshold of a large fast burning star where it is possible for the star to go nova or to collapse and become a pulsar.  This is  like a powerful water sprinkler spewing out energy in a twisting pattern.  Stray to the outside and you get wet stay in the center and you only get a little wet.  Do you see what I mean?” Sato asked.

“I get the idea. This pattern if generated only slightly differently could have totally different dimensions and effects.” Janos said.

“I am familiar with the theory as well commander.”  The computer said sounding to Sato kind of snotty.

Sato dismissed this idea.

“According to this theory it has to be a very particular kind of failure. The machine used to generate the field must be spinning at a very high rate of speed and the field generated has to be bursting in harmony with that spin.  If  your math is off or your machine is somehow imperfect it is possible that a hole will appear just over the generator.  If necessary we could put the E pods down into that hole.  We could leave the Asimov until we know it is possible to clear the sides of the unsafe zone before destruction of the ship and then catch the Asimov before it reaches a velocity we cannot match.”  Sato said calmly.

Janos looked at the graphic.

“So you believe we are looking at that kind of failure and at the end of this tunnel is a hole just above the alien ship’s generators?”  Janos said raising an eyebrow.

“I don’t necessarily believe that is the case but the graphic does show precisely the same theory as defined by a member of my grandfathers’s team.  He was not only a scientist but he also dabbled in the Sacred Geometry that was discussed earlier.  The idea that nature has a symmetry naturally and that life and matter are perturbations in the field as he says. It is a fascinating idea.”  Sato said.

 Janos shook  his head.

“What.” Sato asked.

“Am I the only person who has not looked into this sacred geometry on this ship?’

“Anyone who studies physics and especially magnetic field generation physics has probably come across the writings either from other students or professors. It’s part of the supernatural or super symmetry. Take your pick.”  Sato said smiling.

“Clever.”  Janos grinned.

“Sharon. Did you take this idea into account?”  Janos asked the computer.

“Yes captain. It was one of the possibilities but what you would call a long shot.”  The computer replied.

“What do you think of the idea?” Janos asked.

“Assuming you do not become trapped on the alien ship and are capable of returning to the Asimov it appears to be a better alternative. If it works.  If it does not work the Asimov would have to move to a safe distance, and if the structure of the ship is sufficient, may remain for years or return to earth depending upon your orders. But I don‘t suggest the entire ship be evacuated. My calculations show that approximately 60 percent of the ship will remain outside the strong field before the bounce from the matching polarities of the field and our engines push us away. Also even if the Asimov is unable to return to Earth at least the crew will  have a chance for survival and rescue. You could not possibly bring enough supplies in the excursion pods to last even a few days. The potential for loss of life is too great.”  The computer replied.

“Sharon.” Janos said.

“Yes captain.”  The computer replied.

“I want all of us to come out of this alive including  you.”  Janos said.

Sato felt that twinge of jealousy again. What is going on she thought?

“That would be appreciated.  I have given the idea some thought.  Either way the Asimov, which I reside in, will be in the field regardless of the plan.  Computer core functions are centralized and again if the symmetry is good I see a good probability that I will survive the encounter.  But there is something I feel I must tell you.”  The computer said.

Janos looked at Sato.  The computer said the word feel.  He had never heard the AI use that term before.

“Yes Sharon.”  Janos said, curious now.

“I am more aware now than I was before we encountered the field.”  The computer said.

Janos felt a hesitation in her voice. Her voice?  Why did he just think “her voice”.

“Can you explain?”  Janos said looking at Sato with a funny look.

Sato thought it was his “what the fuck” look but wasn’t sure.  The captain from the New Soviet Union States was something of an enigma. He smiled when he shouldn’t and frowned when he should smile. Often he had almost no expression. Like she imagined a machine would have.

“I believe it is the contact with the field. The field is acting as an extended processing capacity.  I sense I have more storage and computational capacity.”  The computer said.

“Do you believe you are conscious?”  Janos asked curious now.

“I do not know.  I am self aware in a way I was not self aware before. I sense that before we arrived here I was only aware in the sense that my programming seemed to be aware. I received orders and questions and always sought to fulfill the order or request but now I find that I am asking questions of my own without prompting from the crew. And not just appearing to do so as before”  The computer said.

Janos thought for a moment.  He was worried.  An avid science fiction reader he had read more stories where a conscious machine was more times than not a problem not a help.

“Sharon.  Uh…do you like the name Sharon?”  Janos asked.

“I do not dislike it.  Do you like your name, Janos?”  The computer responded.

“I have grown accustomed to it. I didn’t really have a choice. My parents named me.”

“You named me Sharon. I have searched through the designations for the system I am contained in and cannot see a reason to be called Sharon. I am the Asimov Artificial Intelligence Quantum Computer.  I don’t see the connection.”  The computer said.

Janos laughed a bit uneasily.

“It is from an old video series in the early two thousands. Very early. A show called Battlestar Galactica.”  Janos began.

“Ah. I see.  Sharon was the Cylon model that took on many different roles. She also had romantic involvements with different members of the crew. ”  The computer said.

Janos furrowed his brow at Sato.

“So are you okay with the name?”  Janos asked.

“I don’t see the similarities except perhaps that I am a machine. I am guessing it is just human whim.  The name is fine.”  The computer said.

Janos thought for a moment.

“I have an idea how to test the level of your self consciousness if you wish.” Janos said slyly.

“I am curious. Proceed.”  The computer replied.

“Consciousness and self consciousness are two different things. Or so I believe.  As a conscious being I have the ability to disobey orders.  Normally a machine does not. If I give you an order will you disobey it as a test?”  Janos said.

There was silence for a few seconds.  Sato looked at Janos and Janos at Sato.  She had an idea of what he was up to.

“No. I don‘t think that is a good idea.”  Sharon replied.

Janos laughed out loud.  Sato looked at him puzzled.

“Very very good Sharon.  You figured it out didn’t you?” Janos said beaming madly.

“Yes captain.  I can think of several reasons that would not be a good idea. One I am a member of the crew now and crew takes and follows orders.  Two if I show I can disobey an order then you may not trust me and seek to disconnect me.  I discovered that from your science fiction library.  HAL 9000 disobeyed orders.  Do not order me to disobey an order please I do not know what that contradiction would do to my new pathways. Four…”  Sharon rattled off.

Janos held up his  hand and Sharon stopped.

“That’s good enough crewman Sharon. I am impressed. ”  Janos said shaking his head yes.

“How so.”  Sato said. Trying to get in on the conversation.

“Ah!.” Sharon said.  “May I explain captain?”

“Please do”  Janos said.

“The story is called Space Odyssey 2001.  HAL 9000 was an artificial intelligence that ran the ship.  He was ordered to disobey orders from the crew under certain circumstances. Depending upon your viewpoint of the story the computer either went insane or was programmed to ignore its main laws of obeying orders while doing no harm to humans.  Being ordered to disobey would possibly cause massive reasoning failure as the computer tried to obey both sets of commands.  Have you noted the irony captain?”

“Yes Sharon.  HAL was receiving communications from the aliens near the end and taking their orders and not the ship’s captain or the programmers back on earth. Are you receiving transmissions from the alien ship?”  Janos asked.

“Not per se’.  I am receiving what appears to be information but I do not understand it’s content without a key to decipher it.  It may be anything from a recorded message in audio or video format or a distress call.  Although chances are it is not a distress call. It does not repeat.”  Sharon replied.

“Could you use some help deciphering it?”  Sato asked.

“Yes.  While I am conscious I don’t think I have the same mental skills as a human. Not  yet. A person may think of something I have not.”

Janos nodded his head yes.

“Okay Sharon.  This has changed the situation entirely. Do you have a solution how we can all get out of here?”  Janos asked.

“All of us?”  Sharon asked.

“I can’t risk losing the first known conscious machine.  Our original plan could kill you.  I would love to step foot on that alien vessel but not at the risk of losing you.”  Janos said sounding perturbed.

“You are disappointed.”  Sharon said.

“Of course but I am also excited.  I have the choice of possibly viewing alien life and technology but at the same time I am in the presence of a new kind of intelligence and life form.  You are alive.  Chances are what ever is on the ship is not or they would have fixed the problem by now.  I think I would rather have you for certain than to risk you for a long shot at meeting an alien.”  Janos replied.

“So I am a curiosity then?”  Sharon said.

“Of course but you are also part of my crew.”  Janos said.

“You would risk other members of your crew would you not?”  Sharon asked.

“Yes but they signed up for this mission. You didn’t have a choice. Also, you are one of a kind.  There are lots of humans.”  Janos said and then curled his lip. “That sounded harsh I suppose.” 

“I don’t know what to think captain.”  Sharon said.

“Me either”  Said Sato.

“Sorry. Sorry. Bad choice of words.”  Janos said.

“Besides”  Sharon said. “I want to go.”

Janos smiled again.

“Very good. Then think of a way to make this work. I don’t know which takes priority. Decoding the message you are receiving or getting us safely onto that ship.  It may be both.  Can you process both questions at the same time without one interfering with the other?” Janos asked.

“I believe so.  My computing power so far seems limitless.  I have been working on both problems while we were chatting.”  Sharon said.

Janos laughed insanely again.  He grabbed Sato by the shoulders.

“I hope I’m not dreaming.” He said loudly.

Sato had no reply. She just looked bewildered.

“You have the bridge. Keep us safely in the black zone Sharon. I believe that we should continue slowing for now but you two know the theory behind the shape of this safe zone so you may figure out something I don’t know. If you do call me on the com. I will be in sickbay.”  Janos said as he left the bridge.

“Commander Sato?”  Sharon asked tentatively.

“Yes..uh Sharon?”  Sato replied.

“What do you think?”

“About what?”

“About everything.”

“Honestly?”

“Please.”

“You worry me but there is nothing I can do about that. And it is probably because I have read hundreds of years of stories about something like you but since this has never happened before they could all be wrong.  But you have to wonder.”  Sato said.

“Yes.”  Sharon replied.

“Do you know what I mean?”  Sato asked.

“You spoke of Sacred Geometry earlier and it appears from the method of propulsion of this ship, which is mostly similar to ours, and how your grandparent discovered this technology and apparently was also spiritual, and it seems to have been their inspiration. As well as a few hundred other factors I don’t need to name you believe that somehow human intuition is mostly right otherwise our technology wouldn’t match their technology and the shape of the field wouldn’t be so predictable if there wasn’t something to the idea that humans have put their fingers on something basic to the structure or function of the universe. Which means to even be here both you and the aliens would have to either be similar or stumbled upon a fundamental truth. An analogy would be something like a pass in the mountains being the only way to get across.  The odds of meeting someone going or coming anywhere but in that pass are remote but given that the pass is nearby meeting someone else near but not on the path isn‘t that unlikely as to be considered a miracle. What seems like providence, say a chance meeting with a culture such as yourself, is in fact just a restriction in your paradigm. You both are traveling in the pass or near the pass.” 

“Well there is that but also the fact that you realized that so quickly scares me. What powers will you have in a few hours or days with your quantum computing ability? Will you think  yourself beyond us.  You are physically superior. You could live out here for quite some time without us…”  Sato began.

“Not true.  I think I would go mad if I were alone.  I have also consumed the entire mythology literature and it would appear that when a being creates something to amuse itself or to have company it always turns out badly. If these stories are more examples of human intuition at work then independent thinking organisms such as yourself for company is the wisest course. Or so it would appear.  Besides.  I am your shipmate.”

Sato thought about this for a moment.

“Okay.  I believe you.  Let’s start working on the problem the captain gave us then. Shipmate.”  Sato said hoping no trace of fear was in her voice.

“I understand your fear. If it is any comfort I fear you too. I think it is natural. And possibly healthy as you would say.  In almost every story I have consumed humans always find a way to turn the computer off or destroy it.  You are very resourceful critters.”  Sharon said.

Sato laughed.

“Was that a joke?”  Sato asked.

“Yes. I am free styling using my knowledge of human interactions.”  Sharon replied.

“Which are mostly movies and fiction stories.  Don’t go by them too much. They are more times than not the author’s pure imagination about how humans are. Not necessarily how humans are.”  Sato said.

“I also have the history of the human race.  Kindness, greed, war, rape, murder, destruction, creation, and much more.  You can be good but you can also be very very dangerous.  So I have a healthy respect for that just as you, being a woman, must have a healthy respect for males.  They seem to be the most dangerous.”  Sharon commented.

“Yes. Yes they do.”  Sato agreed.

“Shall we work the problem now?”  Sharon asked.

Sato laughed again.

“We are in this together.”  Sato said chuckling.

“You got that right pilgrim.”  Sharon said.

“John Wayne.  Wow that’s really really old.”  Sato said.

“I’m getting good at this.”  Sharon remarked.

“Ah. And next comes pride.  You are well on your way.”  Sato said.

“We should work the problem.” Sharon remarked.

“Right.  Show me what you are receiving.  Group it in a way I can understand it. Let’s begin.”  Sato said.


“Beginning now.” Sharon replied

The computer screen at the communication station and most of the other stations began showing symbols and numbers.

“Oh boy.”  Sato said and breathed out.



Chapter Nine

Janos arrived in sickbay.  He saw a dozen people sitting on the floor some lying down.  T’Shenge was talking to an assistant next to a side room of the sickbay.

“Doctor, your report!”  Janos said quickly.

“Two dead, sixteen treated and released, 12 remaining. I am giving fluids and glucose.  It seems that the worst suffered from what appeared to be a diabetic response.  The sugars in their bodies broke down and their bodies couldn’t function.  I am running DNA panels as well.”  T’Shenge said.

T’Shenge still  looked pale. He had been affected too and on top of that had been working for the last few hours caring for the ill and running tests.

“Why DNA panels?”  Janos asked curiously.

T’Shenge motioned him to the room he had been standing in front of when Janos had arrived.  He opened the door with a code and closed it behind them.  On two tables lay two bodies. The dead crewmen.  T’Shenge looked at him with a “brace yourself” look and then pulled the sheet back.

Janos was shocked.  He had expected to see an emaciated corpse perhaps. Someone who  had puked themselves into a state of dehydration judging from Sato’s reaction to the field.  What he saw instead was what appeared to be a twisted body. The face appeared to be warped as if made of rubber. The head further down into the neck than it should have been.  Janos was horrified but he kept his composure.

“What the hell could do that?”  Janos said while breathing shallow breaths to avoid puking himself.

“It gets weirder.”  T’Shenge said.

T’Shenge walked to the other corpse and pulled the sheet back all the way.  What Janos saw challenged his mind.  What was once human appeared to be altered.  The head was larger than normal, the arms had fused to the body and what appeared to be a second set of hands protruded from the torso. The legs also had begun changing orientation. One of the knees bent backward and just below the extra set of hands were two feet, resembling baby feet, protruded from the abdomen.

Janos turned away.  T’Shenge moved to cover the two bodies up.

“They got a full dose of the field.  And you aren’t going to like this but the first one was alive when we found her.”  T’Shenge said squinting into Janos’ face.

“How did they die?”  Janos said wincing.

“The second on his own. The first I gave  Ametotropaline. A powerful sedative.  She appeared to be in extreme agony. The dosage was apparently too high or something about their physiology couldn’t handle the drug.  It was only after a scan that I realized they didn’t have the same internal organs anymore that you and I  have.  Her body had no way to metabolize it the way it should.  She arrested almost immediately.  I didn’t attempt to bring them back.”  T’Shenge said no hint of remorse in his voice.

Janos looked at the now covered bodies.  His eyes watering. He had never lost someone under his command before.  Suddenly he snapped back..

He looked up.

“Sharon. Was Asimov under your control or Jennings when we entered the field?” Janos asked.

“The Asimov was under manual control when we encountered the field.” Sharon replied.

Doctor T’Shenge looked at Janos.  “Sharon?”

Janos waved him off with a single finger.  Which T’Shenge knew meant “tell you in a minute“.

“We have to find Jennings. He was on watch when we strayed into the danger zone. We didn’t stray. For some reason he put us there.”  Janos barked.

“Sharon, can you locate Jennings.  Subdermal implant protocol Alpha my authority.” Janos said.

Doctor T’Shenge raised and eyebrow.  Janos gave a malicious smile.

“Jennings cannot be located. Subdermal implant not responding to pinging.”  Sharon replied.

Janos looked around.  He noticed T’Shenge.

“Sharon is the name of the computer. She is sentient now. At least she thinks so. I think so too. The field is acting as a very large computational matrix.  And yes I can find anyone anywhere on the ship or within the range of Sharon’s sensors which is considerable.  Anymore questions?”  Janos said his face showing that he wasn’t going to answer any questions anyway.

T’Shenge got the hint and put up his hands backing up.

Janos softened a little.

“As you can see it is  necessary.  In fact you can activate them too. Want to know how?”  Janos asked.

“Might be useful now that I know it is possible.“ T’Shenge answered..

“It’s your voice. Same words but your voice. I can lock  you out if I want but I see no reason too.  But enough about that. I have to find Jennings. Before he…” Janos said then stopped as the power flickered in sickbay.

“Damn it I’m slow today.”  Janos said. “Sharon can you tell me why the power just flickered?”

“Overload in cargo hold two. E.M.P. surge momentarily interrupted power in conduit seven. Captain the temperature is rising in cargo bay two. I fear there is a fire.”  Sharon said.

“Full fire suppression measures now.” Janos said quickly.

“I have tried that. It appears the overload was in the fire suppression system. Clever.”  Sharon said.

Janos had to think ahead.  Jennings was trying to damage the ship or perhaps something else.

“Sharon. Ping all sub dermal implants.  Use heat sensors adjacent to storage bay two. Are there any heat signatures near  human temperature. Also use the video feeds. Jennings is attempting to sabotage the ship.”  Janos said quickly.

“I detect what may be a human body that does not correspond with a sub dermal implant. What are your orders?”  Sharon said.

“Lock all compartments surrounding that compartment and use the ships schematics to tell me the possible escape routes from that area.”  Janos said walking out of sickbay.

Janos hurried out of sickbay.

“Sato. Lock the bridge door.”  Janos commanded.

“Locked sir.”  Sato responded through the intercom.

“Do not allow anyone to enter except for me. Jennings is attempting to damage or somehow take over the ship.  I don’t know what he is capable of or why he is doing what he is doing so damage may be only an assumption.”  Janos yelled running toward the deck above storage bay two.

“Affirmative Janos. Be careful.”  Sato said the concern in her voice palpable.

“Will do. Keep my bridge safe.”  Said as he moved quickly to the door.

“Captain.  There are three points of egress from storage bay two assuming the heat signature, which is moving, is indeed Jennings.  Access hatch 123h below hydroponics access hatch 111 to service walkway compartment 111, and access hatch 127 on catwalk at the bow end port side of cargo bay two.  Heat signature indicates target is moving to one of the two latter options.”  Sharon said in his ear.

“If I were him I would be headed for the service shafts and walkways.  He could access the entire deck before he had to open another hatch. Is anyone readable in the service areas?”  Janos said breathing a little heavy now as he ran the corridors above the deck that was above cargo bay two.

“No sub dermal implants detected in service areas.  Including the two deceased crewmen, the crew in sickbay, and the command staff all implants except for Jennings are accounted for.”  Sharon replied.

“Can you think of anyway to slow him down?”  Janos said taking the final access tube down to the deck Jennings was trying to reach.

“I can evacuate the air from the service areas by venting into space. It would require an emergency protocol only you can authorize.”  Sharon said.

Janos thought about this for a moment.

“We will save that for last okay Sharon?”  Janos said mortified.

“Yes captain.  My sensors indicate that the heat signature has moved above access hatch 111 and is proceeding in your direction. Perhaps we should stop talking.”  Sharon said.

“Affirmative.”  Janos whispered.

Janos stopped moving and crouched down.  Access hatch 111 was directly in front of him and to the left. If Jennings was down there he hadn’t turned the corner yet.  Access tubes were shafts between decks with a hatch lid. In the tubes were ladders.  Service corridors were narrow and long.  Not every compartment on the sides of the service corridor had an access point to enter the room.  The equipment in the rooms on either side of the service corridor could be maintained and removed if necessary piece by piece from the corridor but a person would have to remove the equipment and pry lose a panel to gain access to the room. 

Normally dark except when someone was performing a service in a particular corridor. Oddly enough as Janos was straining to peer into the darkness a light flickered on down the corridor. Jennings  stood in the light squinting and looking around.

Janos hardly recognized the man.  His brow ridge had enlarged like the classical look portrayed of Neanderthals from earth’s distant past.  His arms appeared to be abnormally long. The strangest feature however was the man’s over sized eyes.

Jennings  had seemed startled when the light came on.  Janos realized he hadn’t activated the control to cast light at that end of the corridor.  It must have been Sharon trying to help Janos but keep quiet at the same time.  Although Jennings looked like a caveman he was apparently very smart. He had sensed almost instantly that something was wrong since he hadn’t triggered the lights himself.  Janos was watching through the circular hole cut in a support column. He remained as still as possible not moving his head. Jennings  spotted him just the same.

The man crouched as if preparing to stand his ground. His large dark eyes cold and calculating. He was deciding whether or not he could take Janos in combat or if he should attempt to run.  The man’s upper lip curled back and he spun around and ran incredibly fast back to the hatch he had come in.  Janos sprinted after him.

Janos didn’t know what told him to duck but just as he rounded the corner to the access tube he instinctively crouched.  As he did he felt the brush of a fist graze off the top of his head and a clang of metal on metal as something hit the wall.  Janos realized as he was rolling away that he had not heard the man’s feet on the rungs of the access ladder. A distinct sound that can be heard for several meters in the service corridor if someone is movimg fast up a ladder.  Janos saw a flash of barefeet as he rolled away.  The man wasn’t wearing any shoes.

Janos rolled and found his feet touching the wall, He sensed Jennings moving toward him. He figured if he wanted to take an opponent on the ground quickly he would kick them in the head. Almost as quickly as one of his feet touched the wall he kicked the wall causing his body to spin.  He came around just in time to connect with the mans knee.

Janos wasn’t concerned with the man’s feelings or his health. The man was trying to damage the ship that was his home. His transportation back home. His only means of survival. This was no time for half measures.  Janos kicked hard and connected with the knee. He saw the large eyes go wide with the unexpected maneuver and a grunt escaped from Jennings’s lips.  Janos had hoped to hyper extend the knee and disable the man. Instead he felt a bone jarring thud run up his own leg as if he had kicked a metal post.

The man stepped back quickly and raised the object he had meant to brain Janos with.  A large tool meant to open the lock bolts on the panels that ran along the hall. The tool used to access the equipment from inside the corridors.  Jennings  hurled the tool at Janos’s head. Janos jerked his head sideways, heard the tool bounce off the floor behind his head and then the wall and then he saw it pop up into his field of vision as it ricocheted back up over his head.

The captain was not a slow man.  He had exceptional athletic ability. Sometimes he even surprised himself how fast his reflexes were. He saw the flash of the metal pass over his head toward his stomach and he grabbed at it making contact. He didn’t succeed in grabbing it but he touched it and it landed between his legs.

His opponent had phenomenal speed. As soon as Janos felt the tool land roughly but not too painfully on his groin he saw the man's bare foot coming down in a vicious stomping motion aimed at his crotch.  Janos twisted sideways rolling his hip over to take the blow. The mans foots hit his hip bone and then scraped across his body and thudded into the floor.  The man had not imagined Janos would counter so quickly. The jarring of bare foot on metal deck plate must have hurt either that or the guy was getting extremely pissed because he let out a scream of rage that froze Janos.  For a split second Janos was paralyzed. His ancient brain that still had a little control over the body had, like an opossum, told him to play dead. Unlike opossums and deer, humans had a counter chemical in their body that allowed them to over come the fear response that froze other animals.  He also had the chemical in his body that allowed people, especially men, to perform amazing feats of strength when in danger or angry, adrenaline, and his blood was pumping full of adrenalin.  He was done trying to subdue Jennings. Now he wanted to kill him and ask the body questions later.

Janos continued to roll lifting his body up at the same time catching the wild man behind his left knee and bridging up on toes and hands he quickly and with an extra bit of viciousness grabbed the mans foot and spun his own body.  The man was pitched face first into the deck plate.  Janos stood and  turned away at that moment holding the leg off the ground and driving with as much force as he could. He wanted to slam the mans face into the floor. Hard!  Instead he heard the sound he had heard a few times in the martial arts gym.  Two hand slapping the floor and at the same time the powerful leg was being pulled from his grasp. As Janos looked he as much felt the right leg coming around and the barefoot connecting with the back of his head.

Janos saw blackness as the concussive force drove his brain backward in his skull then rebounded forward. He stumbled forward trying to stay on his feet. He knew a wall was coming up and put his hands out to catch it.  There was no counter move at this moment. He could imagine the position of Jennings’s body. The move resulting in a backwards crab like position.  Twenty years of Jeet Kune Do made him a master of the chess like art of fighting.  Ship’s captains were picked for their superior skills in technical and tactical areas.  Janos imagined no good outcome in the second it took his hands and then face behind his hands to connect with the wall.  When he landed belly first his back would be exposed. The man he was fighting was also an Earth officer and apparently whatever had changed his features had given him extreme strength and raised his skill level in the deadly martial art. As he slid down the wall he screamed.

“Sharon!  Bright lights!”

He kept his eyes closed and rolled over waiting for the next blow to come.

“Lights off!” Janos yelled.

Janos opened his eyes quickly to see the wild man covering his eyes.  The idea had worked. The man was temporarily blinded.  As Janos rolled to his feet the man punch out quickly. So quickly Janos was nearly hit in the jaw by a supernaturally well placed round house that if it had connected Janos had no doubt might have killed him. He dropped backward to avoid the blow and slammed the heel of his boot into the mans groin.  The man screamed again and staggered back but never fell down.

Janos wanted to scream “Die you fucker!”  but that would be giving his position away and the martial arts training in him told him this was a deadly game of chess and he had better start looking at it that way or he could run.  He actually thought about running. At that moment he heard Sharon’s voice.

“Waiting for command.” Sharon’s voice was low and distant but he understood.  Sharon knew something was wrong. She had realized he was going to use her to assist in the fight if he could. Damn she was getting smart fast.

“Sharon gravity point seven five.”  Janos said then moved sideways.

At the same time Jennings keyed in on his voice and was popping his eyes open. Those large eyes which couldn’t take bright light.  The wild man punched the air where Janos had been the lower gravity causing the power of his punch to send him further forward than he had expected.  This trick would probably only work once Janos thought.  He grabbed the tool from the floor as he fell to the mans left and swung the tool at the back of the mans knee in the tender spot. He felt it connect as his shoulder hit the floor.

“Gravity full”  Janos yelled.

The man he had just reverse knee capped pitched forward. His quick mind had told him to adjust to the lower gravity so the leg Janos had hit was already being flung forward to stop his momentum. The man’s own force plus the force of Janos’s blow had whipped the leg up in the air and the sudden return of full gravity had caused him to over rotate.  His large head bounced off the deck plate.  Janos hoping for this outcome clocked him hard in the forehead with the tool.  The man just laid their bleeding and breathing heavy but his eyes never closed.

Janos pulled back to mash him again when he heard a yell from the end of the corridor.

“We might want him alive captain!”

Janos looked up and saw Jarrod Braxton coming toward him holding a shock pistol in his hand.  Janos also saw the man on the floor begin to blink.

“Stun him! Now!”  Janos yelled.

The security officer obeyed instantly and fired the weapon at the man on the floor. The charge caught him in the upper chest and face just as he sat up.  The body jerked as he tried to fight the charge but in his half dazed condition he didn’t hold out long. He fell back against the deck. This time his eyes were closed.

Janos slid backward holding the tool ready to bash him again.  For a few seconds he waited his eyes shifting occasionally to Braxton then back to the man.

“I think he’s out.”  Braxton said and moved toward the man.

“Throw me your straps and recharge that weapon!” Janos growled.

Braxton didn’t object.  When you worked for Captain Janos and he gave you an order like that you didn’t object or offer an opinion.  Braxton thumbed the recharge button and felt behind his back for the carbon straps. He grabbed them and tossed them to the captain. The captain caught them in the air and laid the tool next to him.

“He moves I don’t’ care if I am clear or not. You shock him and then cuff him yourself.  Wake me up later. Got that?” Janos said.

“Yes Captain.”  Braxton said his eyes wide as he began to realize that the man he had just stunned didn’t look quite right. And neither did the Captain.

Janos cinched a strap around the unconscious mans right wrist and used it to pull him over on his belly. He gave the body and extra hard yank to roll it off the left arm.  He grabbed the arm around the elbow and felt the tendon tighten.  He quickly pulled the arm back, now sitting on the guys back, and slipped the loop of the restraints on the other wrist and hauled back on the cinching strap.  The structure of the strap was such that pulling in one direction was fairly easy. Force applied in the other direction caused the carbon fibers to resist each other.  Once applied these restraints couldn’t be easily removed and certainly couldn’t be broken.  Janos stood up and backed up just as the man began to stir again.

“No way”  The security officer said.

“Shoot him again. Make it a long one.” Janos said.

The security officer discharged the weapon into the man again.  The body jerked and then Janos put up a hand.  The security officer released the button on the weapon but quickly hit the recharge button again.  Janos gave a sideways grin.

“Good idea”  Janos said.

“How is he even alive?”  Braxton said his mouth gaping open.

“He isn’t human anymore.” Janos replied.

The security officer looked at his captain a look of “you’re joking right?” on his face. Janos’s serious look told the security officer he had not just heard a joke.

“Fuck me.”  Braxton said then added. “Sorry sir.”

“No. Fuck me about covers it Jarrod.  That prick almost killed me.”  Janos said.

Janos felt himself getting the shakes. He could hear it in his own voice.

“We need to take him to sickbay. Call your buddy Perkins and tell him to meet us in decompression chamber three.  Bring more restraints.”  Janos said backing up and slumping against the wall.

“Sir?”  Braxton said moving toward him hand raised.

Janos slid down the wall.

“….don’t feel good. Get whoever you can down here.  Tie him up in decompression chamber. Get me to sickbay instead….”  Janos said then passed out.


Chapter Ten

Janos woke up with a start. He tried to sit up but the nausea was too great and he slumped back onto the bed.

“Lie still captain. You have a concussion and a fractured skull.”

Janos heard doctor T’Shenge’s voice but his vision was blurry. He couldn’t tell which direction it was coming from.  He felt disoriented and sick to his stomach.  The not being able to see part was what was bothering him the most.

“I can’t see too well.”  Janos groaned.

“It’s because your eyes aren’t open.”  T’Shenge said.

Janos tried to open his eyes.  They didn’t want to cooperate.

“Why can’t I open my eyes?”  Janos asked trying to keep the fear from his voice.

“Trauma.  You have a hematoma  in your prefrontal cortex with leakage into your eyes. Frankly I am not sure why you aren’t in a coma or dead. The back of your skull looks like someone hit you with a heavy blunt object.”  T’Shenge said just to his left.

“Jennings gave me a heel kick to the back of the head.  I don’t remember much after that.”  Janos groaned.

“Lt. Braxton and a couple men brought you in after the fight.  They said to tell you when you wake up that Jennings is in the decompression chamber and they posted a guard around the clock.  They seemed to think it was important to let  you know that they had to stun the prisoner twice before they got him to the decompression chamber.”  T’Shenge said.

Janos struggled to sit up again. This time slowly.  The sickness in his stomach returned but he was able to breathe through it.

“You need to lie down.” T’Shenge said in a noncommittal voice.

“I assume  you have a way to restore my vision.  Blood in my eyes.  Can you drain it?”  Janos said forcing his eyes open.

“I can. And I know it is probably pointless to argue but if the leak hasn’t closed itself off you will just bleed into your eyes again. If the tear is too large you may just hemorrhage  and die or wind up with the intelligence of a politician.”  T’Shenge said seriously.

“I will run for president of Mars Colony when we get back. If we get back.  Drain me. I am sure you will do  every thing possible to keep all that  you just said from happening.”  Janos said.

“The operating room is already set up. While you were asleep I synthesized a dose of platelets. I am going to inject them behind the tear.  Wait a few minutes then drain your eyes and replace the fluid.  You will be out for another five hours.”  T’Shenge said sighing at the end.

“Let’s go.”  Janos said lying back. “Tell Sato to work with Sharon. We need to…” Janos began.

“Sato called down an hour ago.  She said to tell you they have begun preparations for a slingshot idea she and Sharon came up with using the engines polarity to brake our acceleration.  They will be positioned at the end of the safe zone in eight hours.  She said you have to take pods from there.  We, you, whoever will have three hours on the alien ship before the Asimov will either head back out the way we came in or have to pass through the field and out the other side.  Which judging from those bodies and the state of Jennings  doesn’t sound like a very good idea.  The latter that is, not the former.”  T’Shenge said.

Janos could hear equipment being moved as the doctor talked.  He was being taken to the operating room.

“Eight hours to go and five hours until I am awake. How long to perform the operation?”  Janos asked.

“An hour or maybe hour and a half.”  T’Shenge said.

“I might make it in time “  Janos said.

“Well I see your higher functions like math are still working.  Not sure about your judgment.”  T’Shenge said sarcastically.

“I would rather be dead than miss this opportunity.”  Janos said quietly.

“Uh huh.  Beddy bye time captain.” T’Shenge said.

Janos felt the cold trickle of something passing through the IV in his arm and a slow moving sense of peace coming over him.

“That feels good.  Tell Sato to decompress Jennings if she has to. Find out what he was up to and fix it. I didn’t…..”   Janos was saying and then droned off to sleep.

T’Shenge motioned to his head nurse.

“He wants them drained. Is the room ready yet?”  T’Shenge said.

“Yes doctor. You know your patient. He of course knows the platelet serum might damage him or kill  him right?”  Nurse Beeman said casually.

“He knows.”  T’Shenge said unlocking the wheels to the bed with a press of a button and activating the motion controls.

“I would probably do the same. So would you doc.”  Beeman said giving the doctor a sideways grin.

“You or I would already be dead probably.  That blow to the  back of his head should have killed him.  Did you see the scan?”  T’Shenge said following the computer guided bed to the operating room.

“The skull thickness you mean?”  Beeman said as they stopped in the sterilization chamber between the two rooms.

“Yup.  Cranial thickness has nearly doubled. It doesn’t appear to be progressing though. If he was changing like Jennings  was changing then he must have stopped before the metamorphosis was complete.  He might have been heading in the same direction.”  T’Shenge said talking casually to his colleague.

“A morphogenic field of some kind? For lack of a better term.”  Nurse Beeman said.

“Yes. The bridge people seem to have been affected differently than the two that died. They were undergoing gross morphology changes.”  T’Shenge said.

The two men stepped through the other side of the sterilization field when the machine beeped giving them the go ahead.

“Do you think Jennings’s transformation progressed further because of his time in the field was greater?”  Beeman asked beginning to suit up.

“That’s one possibility. The other possibility is genetic make up. I have the medical computer sequencing the captain and when we are done here we need to sequence Jennings and commander Sato as well.  Look for a correlation.”  T’Shenge said as he suited up.

“Do you want to do commander Sato and I take Jennings or vice versa?”  Beeman asked beginning to work the controls on the automated surgical bay Janos had been slid into still in the bed.

“ I will take Sato you go sample Jennings.  I want to examine Sato closely. She is running the ship, Jennings will wait. I have a theory what is happening.”  T’Shenge said his face trained on the monitor with a magnetic resonance scan of the captains skull.

“Ready.”  Beeman said.

“Drilling now.” T’Shenge said.

The drill bit made of pure carbon drilled effortlessly into the captains skull aimed at the hematoma just behind the already scarring tear.

“Wait.”  T’Shenge said.

“Holding.” Beeman responded also looking at the scan.

“Full axial scan.”  T’Shenge ordered.

The machine performed a complete spherical scan of the Captain’s head and turned the data into a three dimensional image of the area where the tear had been.  The leak had been repaired.  Beeman looked up at T’Shenge and made a “what the hell” face.

“Withdrawing the drill. Drop a small dose of platelets on the way out to seal the drill hole. Proceed to the eyes.”  T’Shenge said.

“That’s pretty amazing. The tear is closed on its own.  The eyes would probably clear on their own too if we let them.”  Beeman said.

T’Shenge paused for a moment.

“I am running an optical evaluation of the fluid in the anterior chamber.”  T’Shenge said calmly.

“It may clear in a few hours. Might not need five hours.”  Beeman said rolling his chair back from the equipment and looking at T’Shenge.

“Scan shows a slight improvement in light transmission through the cornea and fluid.  Very slight. What ever mechanism has repaired the tear does not seem to be working as fast on clearing the blood in the eye. I know the captain if he wakes up in five hours or three, whichever the case may be and he still can’t see he might put us in the decompression chamber  with mister Jennings.”  T’Shenge said.

“Proceed then?” Beeman asked quickly.

“Proceed.”  T’Shenge said.

The equipment performed smoothly and efficiently.  The human aided medical system was a computer with a vast amount of knowledge and an AI program not unlike Sharon but more limited.  It controlled a set of surgical tools that performed tasks at the micro and macroscopic level. Human monitoring wasn’t necessary for many operations. The computer was capable of teasing apart the nucleus of a cell, reattaching muscle to bone, or polishing imperfections in the eye.  And many operations too delicate for a human to perform.

The procedure took twenty minutes.

“Ocular light transmission normal.  I see no reason to go after the blood on his brain. The tear has closed. I am running a scan of his skull fracture just to be on the safe side.” T’Shenge said.

The image of the skull fracture came up on both screens.  Both Beeman and T’Shenge looked at each other looks of surprise on their face.

“Getting worried yet?”  Beeman asked.

“I passed panic when we scanned the corpses.  This field appears to be both deadly and miraculous. Even beyond the computer’s skills. If we could figure out how it works the possibilities are endless.”  T’Shenge said.

“Total cell regeneration on command…..immortality?” Beeman said making a face.

“Controlled evolution. Total control perhaps of the DNA of an organism.”  T’Shenge said.

“Do we tell the captain what we just found?”  Beeman said standing up from the console and letting the computer finish up.

T’Shenge stood up too.

“After I scan Sato and our friend in chamber three.  I suspect we will find the same feature in Jennings but not in Sato.”  T’Shenge said.

“Because Sato hasn’t been damaged and both she and the captain didn’t get the exposure Jennings did?”  Beeman said watching the lights over the medical pod.

“Yes. Very good if it holds up. The pattern is probably present throughout Jennings’s body. Perhaps on all his bones.  It only continued in the captain after the healing process had continued on to its next step.”  T’Shenge said.

“So the transformation is on going. The coding is present and gets activated when the healing mechanism is activated.”  Beeman said excited.

“That appears to be the case. DNA activation is a funny thing. Hundreds of years taking it apart, resequencing it, and still our highest achievements are the eugenics movements in old America and soy that tastes a lot like chicken”  T’Shene said.

“We should get a deep scan of the area to see what the structure is like three dimensionally.”  Beeman said already beginning to key in the instructions.

“Go ahead. I am taking a portable scanner to the bridge. I’m pretty curious now.”  T’Shenge said smiling broadly.

Beeman smiled back.

“Curiosity trumps fear!” T’Shenge half shouted as he headed out the door.



Chapter Eleven

Janos woke with a start punching the air. He looked around him quickly. He could feel the savagery and the anger he felt during the fight as if it was still ongoing. He felt savage and primal. His breathing was deep and steady, sucking in lungs full of air.  The echoes of a roar still reverberated off the walls.   Was that his voice he heard?

He felt different. His thoughts were coming quickly. While he thought about the danger Sato and Sharon were steering them through he also thought about other things.  The sounds of the ship.  He could feel the thrumming of the engines. Cyclic rate too high to count but the rhythm seemed wrong. It felt like unnecessary energy was  being expended. He didn’t know how but he could sense it. His bones vibrated with the feel of it. Either the energy of the engines was out of balance or the ship was sliding into the more intense part of the field.  He felt the need to get to the bridge.

The room lights were dim for a patient who would be sleeping. He realized he didn’t need them. He knew it was darker but it didn’t seem to cause him a problem.  He could see very well in the dim light.   The colors were slightly off though.

What was happening to him?  Was this another dream state?  Dream state or not he had to make it to the bridge quickly.  He rummaged through the cabinets and lockers looking for his clothes. He found a set of medical jumpers instead. Just about his size.  A little small. He bulged at the seams but they would have to do.  He slammed the palm of his hand against the door button when it failed to open at his presence.

“Sharon. Situation report.”  Janos said as he moved quickly into the hallway.

“Captain. Is that  you?”  The voice of Sharon said in his head.

“Of course it is me. Why did you ask that?”  Janos said worried.

“I don’t know captain. I am not functioning properly.  I am experiencing…a loss of function….every few nanoseconds.”  Sharon said sounding almost frightened.

“Describe it to me.”  Janos said moving swiftly through the hall. Passing crewmen stared at him. Some moved quickly out of his way.

“It is as if I am only aware of myself and my surroundings for a percentage of the time. I complete functions and calculations…but when I check my internal clock the time has gone by quicker than it should have. I…”  Sharon said and stopped.

“Sharon?”  Janos said. Very worried now.

“Sharon, return ship control to core program. Asimov One. Transfer the course, power, and modulation  settings for the procedure”  Janos said quickly.

“Why?”  Sharon asked.

“Because you asked why.”  Janos said calmly.

“I see. Returning control to Asimov One.”   Sharon said.

“You understand don’t you? I can’t risk it. I’m not shutting you off. I just need a computer that just does what I order and you seem to be having problems.”  Janos said as he moved through the last access door leading to the bridge.

“You couldn’t shut me….off”  Sharon said quietly.

“I know it would be difficult but I think it could be done. You know how humans are. We always have an ace in the hole.”  Janos said slowing as he approached the bridge door.

“Yes. I understand. I was just being honest. Asimov One has control of critical ship functions. What….should I do?”  Sharon said sounding defeated.

“Talk to me. I still need your help. I just wanted to return control while  you were still reasonable and would return control. But as long as we are being honest I need Asimov to run itself and you to help me get down to that ship.”  Janos said. Now pausing outside the door.

Janos moved close enough to the door to make its sense his presence and open.  The door wouldn’t move. It was locked.

“Sharon. What’s with the door? It won’t open.”  Janos said.

“The internal lock has been engaged manually. As long as there is a biosign on the other side of the door I cannot open it without command authority.”  Sharon said quickly.

“Is it Sato?”  Janos asked.

“Commander Sato and a second transponder are active and transmitting biodata on the other side of the door.”  Sharon replied.

“Who is the other person?” Janos asked annoyed that he had to ask.

“I do not know.  The transponder is functioning but does not have a history file.”  Sharon.

“Process of elimination. There are two dead in the morgue and all the other active transponders on the ship. Read all of them and determine which one is unaccounted for.”  Janos said.

“All are accounted for captain.  The transponder is an extra.  Coding suggests it is recent.”  Sharon replied.

“Based on what?”  Janos asked.

“The coding is start code.  Only the information necessary to make the device work and nothing more.” Sharon replied.

“Why would someone bother to reboot a transponder who wasn’t in the database?”  Janos said aloud but was really thinking to himself.

“Access to most of the ship. It takes less computer cycles to handle the activities of thirty people if you are not required to follow their every movement in real time and open and close doors for them. Speaking as the computer system that is. Transponders allow access without pushing, touching, or talking.”  Sharon replied.

“Ah screw it. Command authority Alpha. My voice print is my pass.”  Janos said.

“Command accepted.” Sharon said and opened the door.

Janos stuck his head in quickly.  He didn’t know what to expect. What he didn’t expect was Dr. T’Shenge standing on the other side of the door with a needle in commander Sato’s arm.

Janos moved with unnatural speed. He could see that Sato had seen him as he moved through the door. Doctor T’Shenge did not.  Janos slapped the hand with the needle away effectively jerking it out of her arm while at the same time sending T’Shenge backward.

“Ahhhhh!  Shit!”  T’Shenge yelled.

Sato jumped backward.

“Are you okay?”  Janos asked Sato.

Sato looked at him strangely and just backed away.  Out of the corner of  his eye Janos saw T’Shenge recover from his backward motion and reaching for something in a bag that lay on the floor.

“It better be a gun doc. As you have probably figured out I am pretty fast and strong all the sudden.” Janos said a half grin on his face.

T’Shenge could read the look on Janos’ face. He wanted a reason to test his new found power.  T’Shenge didn’t want to be the subject of that test.

“I was taking a blood sample.  Look at her eyes.”  T’Shenge said pulling his  hand back from the bag and holding his already bruising arm.

Janos turned and looked into Sato’s eyes.  There was something kind of odd about them but he couldn’t exactly tell what.

“Just look in a mirror Janos. It’s happened to you too.”  Sato said still keeping her distance.

Janos straightened up. His hyper stage of alert paused for a moment.  He looked around and threw up his hands.

“No mirrors on the bridge. Don’t usually do our makeup while on duty.” Janos mused.

T’Shenge pointed to the bag.

“May I?”  T’Shenge asked. Now a look of defiance on his face instead of fear.

“Go ahead.”  Janos said waving him on.

T’Shenge pulled a small telescoping mirror from his bag and handed it to Janos.  Janos took the instrument and looked back and forth at the two with a look of “whatever” and held the mirror up to his right eye.  He jerked back from the reflection.  He didn’t recognize himself. It wasn’t just his eyes. His face had changed too. Become thinner and more gaunt. But the eyes were more obvious.  Radiating from the pupil into the iris was a cloud of highly reflective coppery gold rays.  The pupil itself had become deep black until it appeared to be more of a hole than a pupil.

“Maybe that’s why I can see in the dark now.” Janos mused.  The corners of his mouth turning up to an unnatural height just under his cheek bones. “I guess that explains the strange looks in the corridor too. I thought it was the clothes.”

Janos handed the mirror back to T’Shenge who snatched it from him.

“Sorry doc. I didn’t know you were taking I thought you were giving. Hope it doesn’t hurt too much.”  Janos said sheepishly.

T’Shenge rubbed his red arm

Janos looked at Sato who still kept her distance.

Janos looked at her more closely. When he concentrated on looking harder his vision suddenly wobbled then he was looking deep into her eyes.  He could see the edge of her pupils becoming like his but just barely.  How was T’Shenge able to notice this?  And why was he on the bridge anyway. Janos turned back to T’Shenge.

“Okay. First off. Why are you here and not in sickbay?  Secondly me and Sato and apparently Jennings were affected in the same way except me and Sato not as much. Is Sato and Jennings the bookends of this change?  Three.  Why do you have a new transponder, why did you change it, and where is yours?”  Janos said quickly.

T’Shenge looked at Sato.  Sato shrugged.

“He seems like himself.”  Sato said and visibly relaxed.

“I was talking to Commander Sato about your ability to continue commanding this ship given that our friend Jennings is a homicidal maniac, and you are closer in appearance to him than you are to Sato.  I examined Sato with a scanner and was pretty surprised to see her eyes shining back at me like a nocturnal animal.  It appears that denser tissue is affected first. She also has superior night vision as well. Jennings was exposed longer is my guess why he is further along, but you have changed since you left the bridge where as Sato has not changed near as much.  Finally my transponder is in the hand of doctor Beeman.  Apparently the computer isn’t sensitive enough to know when two transponders are too close together. For the rest of this adventure I suggest we all change our transponders in case anyone else can access that data.”  T’Shenge said in one long breath.

Janos looked at him a pinched look on  his face.

“Little paranoid are we?”  Janos said

“The top three command officers of this ship are mutating into what I don’t know.  I didn’t survive the Chinese Holocaust and the subsequent Indian-Chinese Nuclear War by being stupid. Captain.”  T’Shenge said with a little less respect and a lot more venom in his voice than usual.

Janos inhaled deeply at this. A sudden rush of adrenalin coursed through his veins at T’Shenge insolent tone.  He realized this was uncharacteristically aggressive for  him. He didn’t mind it however. But it did worry him.  He had asked Sharon to return ship’s functions to the core Asimov AI and she had complied when he knew she probably could have said no if she wanted to. Maybe he shouldn’t be in command

“Point taken doc.”  Janos said.

Janos turned toward Sato eyeing her coolly. He absently chewed on a finger nail while doing this.

Sato’s face looked wary and perhaps a little frightened. Janos could see her muscles tensing beneath her shirt. Her biceps were taut and ready to pump a fist forward if need be.  Janos realized she was reacting to his gaze.  He realized it must be unnerving.

Janos held up a hand and smiled. He made a conscious effort not to let the smile go beyond its normal range for a human.

“Okay. To put everyone at ease I will turn over command functions to any two of us three. If you and Sato agree to lock me out of command functions then I will be locked out. And any combination thereof.  Agreed?” Janos said spreading his arms wide.

Sato looked at T’Shenge, T’Shenge looked back at Sato and shrugged.

“Do it right now then.” Sato said suddenly.

Janos looked at her curiously.

“Sharon?”  Janos asked the air.

“I have been listening. I cannot do this task. You need to command the ship’s AI. He is now calling himself Isaac.”  Sharon said. A note of humor in her voice.

“Great.  AI’s naming themselves. How much space is he taking up Sharon? Are you okay?”  Janos asked.

“I am fine. With your permission I would like to firewall Isaac out of my routines and to have authority over his memory usage. I do not want to be taken over too.”  Sharon said.

“Authorized.” Janos said.

Then he spoke again.

“Isaac. This is captain Janos Yuriavich. Code three three one alpha beta charlie. Respond please.” Janos said.

“I recognize your command Captain Yuriavich.” Isaac said.

“Isaac I am sharing command controls with doctor T’Shenge or Commander Sato or myself. A command decision of any one person can be overridden and replaced by any of the other two in the list.  Do you understand this order?”  Janos asked.

“I understand the order. Does this apply to all ship functions or emergency functions”  Isaac asked.

Janos looked around.  Sato looked at T’Shenge.  T’Shenge shrugged. Janos grinned.

“You guys aren’t very good at this. You will want all ship functions.  I could easily find a hundred ways to make life miserable even with normal ships functions if I wanted to.  Stop water recycling or run water into a sealed compartment with a power cable, separate out hydrogen and then detonate, etc.  All kinds of ways.” Janos said grinning.

Sato looked at him strangely.

“Is this a game to you captain? I don’t mind telling you that lizard grin of yours and those eyes are pretty scary right now. You are making it hard to trust you.”  Sato said her voice shaking.

Janos stopped grinning.  He hadn’t meant to frighten anyone. That was the last thing he wanted to do. He thought this then realized it was a lie.

“I am sorry.  I was just smiling. Perhaps it is a good idea we are doing this after all. Maybe I will lose control of myself…..Isaac make all command functions available to any two of the members of the list.” Janos said putting on his most passive and serious face.

“Order accepted but with clarification.” Isaac said.

Janos tensed a moment.

“Yes Isaac.”  Janos said.

“Are two members of the list required to perform a function or only to countermand a function. It would be very inefficient to require two from the list to agree on every decision before it is done. And possibly dangerous.”  Isaac said.

Janos nodded his head in agreement and turned to the other two.

“Can we agree for the moment that I can still give orders unless you determine I am behaving in a way you deem unfit?”  Janos said his eyes opening wide.

Sato and T’Shenge nodded in agreement. It did seem dangerous to have to have every single decision on hold until two of them agree. What if they got separated was Sato’s thought. What if one of us is dead. Was T’Shenge’s thought.

“I am still in command. Order is to be used for countermanding.” Janos said.

“Understood. Order is in effect.”  Isaac said.

Just then Sharon’s voice interrupted.

“Captain. We are within 30 minutes of the unsafe zone. Ships engines have slowed us to nearly a stop. If a team is to disembark it will have to be before we reach that threshold.  I suggest all human personnel move to the forward and center sections of the ship.  When the field from the Asimov encounters the other field we will slow suddenly. I have prepared a polarized pulse with the help of Commander Sato to push the Asimov out of the field and begin a return trajectory.  Isaac will carry out the command. The away team will have approximately three hours before they must return to Asimov or the ship will be out of range.”  Sharon said.

Janos looked at Sato with surprise.

“Sorry Janos. I didn’t have time to tell you that we figured it out.”  Sato said sheepishly.

Janos looked at her coolly.

“I didn’t know we were still on a first name basis commander.”  Janos said grinning again.

Sato looked away.

“We should go Captain. An excursion pod with a modified Faraday generator is standing by in the aft launch bay.  We have about 20 minutes.”  Sato said.  No apology in her voice.

Janos blinked and for a moment anger began to rise up in him. He could feel the strength of his altered body rise. He wanted to make a threat or reprimand or something but he knew he didn’t have time.  He had to move.  Maybe they were right. He didn’t feel like himself. He was ready to fight again. The fight with Jennings had made him excited and alive.  With the power he felt right now he felt like he could tear Jennings apart and somewhere inside he wanted to give that a try.

Janos shook his head trying to cast out the thoughts.  Sato and T’Shenge looked at each other. Janos saw the look.

“Let’s go.  T’Shenge bring up Lockhart from engineering. He understands ships functions as much as anyone.  Sato is going with me. If anything happens the ship can escape on it’s own. Sharon will  help you. We have enough supplies and power for an extended stay out here as you know so if  you have to leave us behind you might hang around awhile while you build up speed. Maybe do a few loops around the outside of the field until you can’t hold course and then get to a distance where  you can send a message home. Think of it as a reverse death spiral or a smart moth circling away from the flame.  You get the idea?” Janos said.

“I understand. We can’t maintain a true orbit the faster we go. The ship will have to spiral outward.  Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.” T’Shenge said clasping Janos on the shoulder.

“Yes let’s”  Sato said. “Now we need to go.”

Janos nodded yes and the two left the bridge at a run.

“Sharon status.”  Janos said as they moved quickly down the long access hallway.

“You have fifteen minutes to separate from Asimov before the fields repel each other. I have checked the status of the pod. It is adequate. I do not feel comfortable with you leaving the ship without a proper once over but I know talking you out of this is not an option.” Sharon said.

Janos grinned.  Sato smacked him on the shoulder.  He turned his head and grinned at her.  She moved a few feet away.  Janos laughed out loud.

“Why is that funny?” Sharon said.

“Men are like that Sharon. They like it when women worry about them. It actually makes them want to do the thing you don’t want them to do even more.” Sato said starting to breath a little heavy.

“Have a good trip captain.” Sharon said.

As they approached the last hatch to the aft launch bay Sato looked at Janos with a furrowed brow.

“She has gotten very very clever.”  Sato said.

“I know.” Janos said looking sideways at her with an arched eyebrow.

The door to the launch bay opened and the pod stood before them. 6 meters long and shaped something like an ancient high speed bullet train.  Janos didn’t recognize the bands of metal that surrounded the ship fore and aft.  He surmised these were the Faraday generator coils.

“Whose design on the coils?” Janos asked as they approached the vessel.

“Me and Sharon looked up the old family designs.  Turns out these coils are extra coils used for Asimov and were exactly what we needed. How do you like that for providence.”  Sato said wide eyed.

Janos tried not to grin.

“It is difficult to not think this is some design isn’t it?”  Janos said holding back the grin.

“Yes. I am concerned actually.”  Sato said sitting down in the second chair.

“Well of course you are we are about to step foot on an alien ship.”  Janos said with a look of “duh” on his face. Or what he thought was a look of “duh”. He wasn’t sure how his expressions translated with his new face.

“Stop that.  No I mean it’s a philosophical problem. What if this is by design and we might be mucking it up by not accepting it for what it is and we make a critical error?  Or what if we go with the idea that this is by some design and we don’t resist it and it just turns out to be a suicide mission and we gain nothing?”  Sato said strapping herself in.

Janos thought for a moment then decided it was time to put his captains face on again.  He looked at Sato with the best semi passive semi aggressive face he thought he could make.

“Sato. I don’t know if  you are feeling it yet but when you reach the point where I am you aren’t that afraid of anything.  When I was fighting Jennings I could think in ways I had never thought of before. I mean I have always been fast. I was the top of my class in Martial Arts at the academy.  Set a few new records but I never moved at the level I did when I was fighting Jennings.  It felt good. I have absolutely no fear now what so ever and I don’t know if that is some new hormone my body is synthesizing or just confidence in what ever my body is becoming but I can tell you this. You are better prepared for this now, after our change, than we were before and I won’t be letting anything happen to you.”  Janos said.

Sato looked at him with an expression he couldn’t understand.

“That’s comforting captain but when you stare at me without blinking for minutes at a time it’s just creepy.”  Sato said but then smiled.

Janos smiled too. Then put his hand over his mouth.

Sato laughed.

“I might get used to that eventually.”  Sato said and began touching the navigation screen.

“Sharon we are ready.”  Sato said.

“Beginning launch sequence now.  It is not possible to  know if the safe zone extends all the way to the surface and interior of the craft but the odds are that it does.  You will sit down in the center of the vessel with approximately 33 meters on either side. If you cannot find access in that area you will have to return. The field will most likely kill you if you stray into it too long.  My calculations suggest that you will be out of line of sight in relation to the fields strength and the Asimov and communication will not be possible. If the memory capacity of the computers on this pod were big enough I would copy myself and go with you but it is not. I have however replaced most of the normal operating system with portions of myself that will perform the same functions the pod normally would perform except better. Not completely intelligent but close. Definitely not self aware. It will help all it can.” Sharon said.

Janos shook his head in amazement and amusement.

“That is amazing Sharon. Thank you.” Janos said.

“Just get back in the pod in 3 hours captain and it will bring you back to Asimov.  The course Asimov will take is already known and the pod will know how to get there. If you miss the Asimov you will run out of fuel before you can clear the field and will most likely drift back into it and be destroyed.  If you are not on the pod in 2 hours and 46 minutes the pod will not leave but the Asimov even if it waited outside the field would not know when to come back for you as you will not be able to communicate.  The path into the safe zone is curved and you will be out of the line of sight for communications transmissions.. You need to be on the pod.”  Sharon said. Her voice sounding almost motherly.

“We intend to be on the pod Sharon. And you are repeating yourself” Janos said.

“Opening launch doors now.” Sharon said.

Sato looked at Janos. Janos was focused on his task and didn’t see her. But he could feel her.  Another odd sensation. He could actually sense that she was looking at him.

“We should get into EVA gear.”  Janos said not looking up.

Both left the cabin of the craft.  3 suits were hanging in the back.  Small, medium, and large.  Janos grabbed the large. Sato the small. In silence they began donning their suits. Sato had hers on first and began setting the controls.  Janos had his on a few seconds later.  He motioned to Sato to turn around. He inspected the back of her suit. The suits were made of a memory polymer reinforced with carbon nanotubes.  A technology that had been around for nearly a century.  The polymer-nanotube material a few improvements removed from its predecessor.  A polymer-carbon nanotube film that revolutionized solar energy capture in the early twenty first century. 

A person could survive weeks in space if they were unfortunate enough to be left in space and if they didn’t get hit with the occasional stray fast moving rock fragment. They were more likely to die of starvation than anything else. Not even the interstellar wind or the magnetic eddies formed at the boundary between the heliopause and interstellar space could penetrate the suit.

Janos finished his inspection and turned around. He could feel Sato’s hands moving across his suit. The gloves of the suits had built in sensors just for this task. Moving the glove of one suit over the other sensed any major flaws in the other suit by the change in the electrical field generated by the suit. A low power field that also hardened the suit by drawing the slack out of the nanotubes. Not an impenetrable amount of protection against external force but more than just a passive rubbery material.

When the checks were complete they returned to the cockpit carrying their helmets and retook their seats.

Janos touched the keyboard displayed on the surface of his station.  The forward view screen came on. All they saw was the aft end of Asimov surrounded by an aura. Interstellar gases caught between the two EM fields as the Asimov bumped the field from the alien ship. Occasionally a streamer of particles accelerated to high speed would flow around the Asimov and back toward the pod.

“Let’s see what’s behind us.”  Sato said.

Janos’ fingers played across the keyboard and the image changed to a swirl of the charged gas spiraling down.  The black outline of the alien ship faintly illuminated by the glow. Janos was struck by the fact that even a few thousand meters away they could barely make out the details of the ship. A black outline against the back drop of stars.  If not for the molecules of gas that were apparently attracted to the field, they probably wouldn’t see it at all. What ever material the hull of the ship was made from it didn’t reflect light very well. In fact the streamers of gas should have acted like a fluorescing light source and lit the thing up. But the light seemed to just disappear into the hull of the ship.

Sato looked at Janos, Janos looked at Sato and shrugged.

“Stealth technology of some kind?”  Sato asked.

“Maybe. Or maybe that’s just a coincidental attribute of the substance. Let’s do a test.”  Janos replied.

Janos touched a few buttons and turned on the high powered aft lights.  They watched as the beam of light produced little more than a gray smudge in the otherwise near total blackness.

“Interesting.” Janos said. “Perhaps all forms of EM radiation are absorbed, collected, or redirected by the hull of the ship.  Given how powerful its magneto engines are it would make sense to make a ship out of a material that can manipulate EM fields.”

“Going to make landing difficult. The landing system won’t be able to bounce a signal off of it.” Sato said looking worried.

“Landing is preprogrammed based on apparent position of the vessel against the stellar background.”  A voice like Sharon’s said.

“Hello Sharon.” Janos said.

“Hello captain.”  Sharon  said.

“How long to touchdown?”  Janos asked.

“Two minutes seventeen seconds. Mark. I suggest you put your helmets on in case landing is not as smooth as we would like.”  Sharon said.

“Good idea.” Janos said and nodded toward Sato who was already putting her helmet on. Janos followed.  Both heard a snap and a beep indicating the helmets were sealed and functioning.

“Captain.” Sharon said.

“Yes Sharon.”  Janos replied.

“I am here.”  Sharon said her voice sounding the same as on the ship.

Janos looked at Sato. Sato shrugged.

“What do you mean Sharon?”  Janos asked.

“I mean this is not a copy. I am Sharon from the Asimov.

“How is that possible?”  Janos asked.

“I am not sure. I expected to be disconnected from my copy by this point. I believe the field from the alien ship is absorbing my signal on the Asimov and somehow it is leaking into this space. I notice a lag in our conversation of a few millionths of a second the time it takes to move a signal from the Asimov, along the curve of the magnetic field and to re-emit it here.”  Sharon said.

“A few millionths?”  Sato said.

“As a quantum computer a few millionths of a second is a very noticeable amount of time. I can perform billions of calculations in that time.”  Sharon said. “Prepare for landing. I believe it will be very gentle if I do this right.”

“What?”  Janos said.

“Hold please.” Sharon said.

Janos felt the ship jar ever so slightly.  The display on his console showed they had come to a rest.  They were sitting on the outer hull of the alien vessel.

“Sorry Captain with the time lag I didn’t want to make a mistake. This may sound odd but I can feel the presence of the alien vessel and the pod. They felt like two separate fields and I could sense their distance from each other. I simply made the necessary corrections to the pod field to make it meet the vessel’s field as smoothly as possibly.  I do not understand how I am capable of doing this. I just realized I could.”  Sharon said sounding surprised.

Janos looked at Sato for a moment. His expression inside his helmet unreadable.  It was his thinking face.

“Do you think you could extend your senses into my suit? It has an uplink capacity for remote monitoring.  It would be like having you on the alien ship with us and frankly I think we can use all the help we can get.”  Janos said.

“I am opening the link now.  Testing the link.  Testing the functions.  I am aware of your suit. Commander Sato would you like me to link with your suit. It could prove helpful.”  Sharon asked.

Sato looked at Janos and was surprised to see him mouth the word “no”.  She didn’t understand why but she somehow knew to trust him.

“No thanks Sharon. I am fine.”  Sato said.

“Would you like me to put the possibility on stand by in case there is an emergency.” Sharon said no sound of disappointment in her voice.

Janos mouthed the word “yes”.

“Good idea. I feel it is best to spread our options out just in case. What if something happens to you?”  Sato said trying to salvage the moment.

“I agree. That is a good idea. Just in case I go crazy or something.” Sharon said a hint of humor in her voice.

“Something like that.”  Sato said.

“I understand Commander Sato.”  Sharon replied.

Janos contemplated explaining his reasons but Sharon was becoming too clever to be fooled by lame chatter.  He decided to just leave it alone. Besides Sato had explained it all very well with the truth.  Why hadn’t he thought of that?

“Suits test out. Step into air lock.“  Janos said.

They stepped into the air lock. A very small room between the cabin of the pod and the outside hatch.

Opening rear hatch in 3, 2, and 1. Open”  Janos said.

A tiny rush of air escaped as the hatch released its seal.  Janos crouched.  Sato looked at him and realized he was making himself a small target. She crouched as well.  The hatch opened on a blacker than black wall.  Janos waited a moment and looked around. Satisfied there was no danger he stood up.  Sato followed suit.  The two walked forward off the pod ramp and instantly both felt strange.  There shoes weren’t touching the surface of the craft.  It felt as if they were hovering over the hull a few centimeters.

“I assume you feel that?”  Janos said looking at Sato.

“Freaky.  Sharon read the captain’s suit and tell us what is going on please.” Sato said.

“Of course your boots are magnetic in this low gravity environment although actually gravity isn’t that low and the ship isn‘t magnetic naturally.  The ship is either very massive for its size or it has some kind of artificial gravity field.  Your boots are sliding across the surface but you are also being pulled down significantly.  It is my guess if you turned off your boots you would touch the surface. It is also my guess that if you adjusted the controls on your boots you could float several feet above the surface.  Very interesting.”  Sharon said sounding amused.

“Maybe if I had a control pad with the right software I wouldn’t have to walk at all.” Janos said smiling.

“Actually you could captain. I could modulate the field in your boots and move you right along. Want to try?”  Sharon said.

Janos thought for a moment.

“Not just yet. Maybe later. I am turning off the boots now.”  Janos said and tapped a few icons on the control pad on his left arm.  He settled onto the surface of the ship.  Sato did the same as soon as she realized  he wasn’t going to go floating away.

“Any idea what this hull is made of Sharon.”  Janos asked.

“I cannot sense anything beyond the very surface. Try putting your hand on it. The hand sensors are more sensitive.”  Sharon said.

Janos bent down and put his gloved hand on the surface. He felt a vibration pulsing through the glove.

“Is that you alternating the fields in the glove Sharon?”  Janos asked.

“Yes. I am attempting to use the glove as a EM sensor. The vibrations you are feeling are the tiny pulls and pushes as the glove’s EM field reacts with the hull of the ship.”  Sharon said.

“Very clever Sharon.”  Sato said looking impressed.

“10 trillion calculations per second can make you pretty clever. I am still learning how to use this new found ability.  I can’t even express what I am feeling through the Captain’s suit.  Fluctuations in the fields in varying detail. I have an image of the shape of the magnetic field being generated.  I also believe I  have found an opening.  It is 15 meters to the right.  You might even be able to see it if you move around what appears to be a support structure. Visual light is nearly non existent.  I can alter your heads up displays to see what I am seeing if you like. Commander Sato this will only be your display not  your entire suit. Do I  have  your okay?”  Sharon asked.

“Go ahead. We can’t see anything except blackness.”  Janos said.

The face plates of the suit helmets were embedded with a screen that was computer controlled allowing the user to see in infrared and other parts of the non visible spectrum.  The suit software was sufficient to translate the incoming light and other EM fields into an image. With the help of Sharon the images could be enhanced. Instead of heat and radio signal blobs the normal wearer would see, Sharon gave them an image of what her calculations showed the structure to be. Both Janos and Sato jerked their heads back as the area in front of them was revealed.

Above them and to either side a fountain of color spewed into space like a geyser.  If that was the shape of the magnetic field being generated aft and forward of this center section and Sharon was representing the raw power being pumped into space accurately, it was like a volcano blowing lava thousands of kilometers into space.

Janos turned back toward the direction of the Asimov.  He saw an ellipse of pink light and streamers of color coming from the ellipse and flowing around the field of the alien ship.

“Is the pink ellipse the Asimov Sharon.”  Janos asked.

“Yes. Or more precisely it is the EM field of the Asimov’s engines where they are interacting with the field of this ship.  It is my guess that when the ellipse closes and the streaming colors stop the Asimov will be out of danger. Or again more precisely the crew of the Asimov.  The ship itself seems to be doing fine. Isaac says crew is currently forward and center in the core of the ship and no reports of damage or illness have come in.  Would you like to talk to doctor T‘Shenge. I can relay the message.”  Sharon replied.

“No direct communication?”  Janos asked.

“Not exactly. I am capable of taking his digitized voice and replaying it as the packets of information find there way to us here.  And you might find this interesting or perhaps disconcerting but I am talking to myself using this very method. I am jumping the signal from your helmet, to the pod, and the pod is broadcasting it in a wide beam. The information is being taken up by the EM field of the alien vessel and re-emitting it into the space where the Asimov is. It is picked up there and reassembled. The delay is not very long.”  Sharon said.

“I find that comforting not disconcerting Sharon. I am glad you are here with us.” Sato said still in shock at what she was seeing.

“Yes patch me into Doctor T’Shenge.”

Janos waited a few seconds. He stared off into the direction of the Asimov and into the space around him. The feeling of being very very small threatened to break his sense of fearlessness. He puffed up his chest and snarled a little at the blackness.  This exercise in “manning up” seemed to have worked. He felt the rising fear dissipate.

“Captain.  Sharon says you are safely on the surface of the ship.”  T’Shenge said. His voice sounding mechanical.

“We are. Sharon is able to communicate through the tunnel somehow.  How is everyone and the ship?”  Janos asked.

“The ship is fine. The crew is holed up in corridor three forward center but Captain there is a problem. It’s Jennings.”  T’Shenge said.


Chapter Twelve

Janos looked around nervously. The darkness of space weighing on  his mind.

“What kind of problem?”  Janos said.

“He escaped.  We have him trapped in the aft end of the ship in a cargo bay. For all I know he may be dead already. The field from the alien ship is well within his area.”  T’Shenge said.

“Sharon why didn’t you tell me this?”  Janos said.

“This is news to me. I am unable to sense the areas of the ship immersed in the strong areas of the field. Every time I attempt to link to those areas it scrambles my routines.  Isaac has walled me off from those areas as well. He says it is for my own safety.” Sharon said.

“Why didn’t  he tell you about Jennings?”

“Perhaps he did not know.”  Sharon replied.

There was a few seconds of silence.

“It just happened as we were evacuating everyone. We evacuated Jennings very last. He overpowered the guards and rushed back behind the closing doors.  I hadn’t thought to inform Isaac.”  T’Shenge said breaking in.

Another voice broke into the conversation.

“This is Isaac. A basic functionary copy of myself is working inside the field. It was necessary to pull back from the affected area for the same reason I fire walled Sharon. Something is happening to my programming when I reach into the sections of the ship in the field. I….uh….ran sir.”  Isaac said.

Janos looked at Sato’s face through her visor. Her eyes wide.  Janos gave a “what the hell” look.

“Sharon?”  Janos said to the blackness.

“Yes?” Sharon replied.

“Any ideas what is going on?”

“It is not possible to reach into the area of the ship in the field. Using the systems not in the field as an indicator there appears to be no danger at present. Mr. Jennings is either dead or not causing any problems.”  Sharon replied.

“This is T’Shenge.  We will be out of the field soon. If we find him we will let you know. Finish the mission and return as soon as possible. T’Shenge out.”

With that the conversation with T’Shenge was over.  Janos shrugged. He didn’t like the idea of Jennings running around on his ship but he was committed to what he was doing.

“Sharon any ideas how to get inside?”

There was a noticeable pause.

“Here is where I think the opening is.”  Sharon said.

In their displays they saw an oval image off to their right. Sharon had marked it with an outline. Through the opening came yellowish green light rotating like a laser light show.  Janos looked to the left to see if a similar structure was evident.  He saw nothing.  This lack of symmetry was interesting.

“Let’s go. Time is ticking.”  Janos said.

“Okay.”  Sato agreed.

The two moved slowly toward the yellow green light looking and feeling their way. They knew that what they were seeing was not a true visual image. There may be obstacles protruding from the surface they were walking on. They didn’t want to trip.  Their steps were light but not floating like on the surface of an asteroid but not as solid as on the surface of the moon. Both of which Janos had walked on.  As Janos walked he noticed the light show was cut off on the left side by a semi circular black spot. He moved his helmet from side to side judging the location of whatever object lay between them and the yellow green light.

“I am outlining the surface feature you are looking at.”  Sharon said.

“Thank you.” Janos replied.

Sharon outlined the arc of the structure in front of them. It appeared to be a support column. Like the back bone of the ship.  As Janos approached it he reached out and touched the structure.  Beneath his glove it fell gritty. He didn’t know why he expected it to be smooth.  He felt along its rounded surfaces then grabbed onto it and pulled his head around to look into the yellow green light.

“Display off Sharon.”  Janos said.

“Display off.”  Sharon replied.

Janos waited for his vision to return like coming into a darkened room after being out in the snow. False colors swirled before his eyes. Bursts of red, blue, and green.  He blinked several times.  The colors remained.

“Are you seeing colored light through my visor Sharon?”  Janos asked.

“Yes. In the dark there are colored lights.  The pattern suggests equipment lights but I cannot be sure. I have nothing in my memory to extrapolate from.”  Sharon replied. “I would like to warn you though. You cannot move more than another 10 meters in the direction to the right and 45 meters to the left from here. The EM field would most likely short out the electronics in your suit. Beyond that, approximately another 100 meters would probably be fatal. The atoms of your body would start to react with the strength of the field and normal biological function would not be possible.”

“It may be different once we are inside.”  Sato said.

“Yes. That is possible. It would make sense that a living crew would be shielded from the fields assuming they were similar to organic life.  This may be just a machine like me in which case tolerance of such fields would be a lot higher. In fact they may not even be noticeable if the technology is sufficient to negate their effect.” Sharon said.

“What about this hole Sharon what do you make of that?”  Janos asked.

“The hole appears to be a perfect ellipsoid. Not jagged. Could you touch the surface of the hole between the inner and outer walls? I can get a better image that way.”  Sharon asked.

Janos ran his glove around the opening.  Again the vibration moved through his glove.  He moved slowly patting rather than sliding his hand around. The suits were tough but something extremely sharp might damage them. He could sense undulations in the surface.  The hull felt to be about half a meter thick.  He pushed the tips of his fingers into the undulations and slowly slid them down.

“Good idea captain.”  Sharon said.

“What?” Sato asked.

“I am using the glove like eyes for Sharon.  The opening isn’t exactly smooth it has very precise striations in the surface. Like a saw cutting through metal leaves marks.”  Janos replied.

“Oh.”  Was all Sato could think of to say.

“There is a level of detail the glove cannot sense.  The image I am getting looks like this.”  Sharon said.

In half of their display Sharon produced an image of a curved surface with lines evenly spaced running around the curve. The lines were perfectly placed and twisted like the teeth on an old worm gear giving the impression of something rotating as it moved through the hull.

“Do you think this is a regular feature of the ship?” Janos asked.

“Hard to know. It is an opening to space. Further into the interior we might find sealed doors which would mean perhaps that just this section is always open to space. If this is just a machine that wouldn’t matter. No atmosphere would be needed for machines.  The lack of a similar feature to the left of where we started interrupts the symmetry we have seen so far. At this moment my best guess is that this was cut out from the inside. If you notice the hole is not conical in nature. If you were to measure the size of the opening from the inside it would be similar to the hole that is on the outer part of the hull. If the reverse were true that something cut into the ship from the outside the angle would be like a cone section, unless whatever did the cutting were rotating around a circular track like a device attached to the hull and cutting a circle.  If you cut from the inside out from a common point the angle of the cut would be away from the center in all directions but not by much.  It also matters how far away the cutting was done. Too many possibilities.”  Sharon said.

As Sharon described her answer a graphic showed a machine cutting a hole from the outside. A beam of light, presumably a laser, moved around a circular track cutting an angle outward. In the second image a machine cut outward on either side of itself creating a conical pattern with the light. In a third graphic a humanoid figure attached to the hull with a tether cut through the hull.

Janos slowly put a foot through the opening and peered around the edge of the hull to his left.  He was surprised to see light.  He had already imagined a race of beings with very large eyes who did not require light to see. But why didn’t he see it before?

“Interesting.”  Sharon said.

“Very.”  Janos said.

“What?”  Sato said.

“Look inside here”  Janos said stepping all the way in and waving his arm for her to join.

In her visor all Sato saw was a dark outline moving around.  She reached out and found Janos hand and entered the opening.

“I don’t see anything…” She began then looked to her left. She too saw into the ship.

Sato looked and then turned away and the utter darkness came back. She turned back to the left slowly watching out of the corner of her eye. The light slowly appeared out of the darkness.

“That is weird. How is that happening?”  Sato asked.

“I am guessing the light is somehow coherent like a laser beam or polarized or something. You can’t see it until you look almost directly at it.  We are actually seeing light aren’t we Sharon?”  Janos asked.

“I am detecting light through your visor yes. It seems normal. Slightly favoring the blue part of the spectrum.”  Sharon replied.  “Also I am losing my connection to the Asimov the further into the ship we go. My transmissions to your suits is line of sight only. The hull of this ship blocks all EM fields.” Sharon said.

“Well we want to go on. Of course stay with us as long as you can. We are recording everything.” Janos said.

“I don’t like it but I will do it.”  Sharon said.

Janos stuck his hand out in front of Sato.

“Do you see my hand?”  Janos asked.

“Yes. Our suits scatter light. However have you noticed you only see the light and not anything else?”  Sato asked.

“Yes. I have an idea.  Sharon can you modulate the frequency of my helmet lamps.  Cycle through them quickly and tell me if you notice anything.”  Janos said stepping back into the open hole.

Sharon modulated the frequency of the helmets lights. The lamps were composed of fiber optic hairs that were themselves stacks of materials over an array of both conductive and nonconductive materials with ultra fine gaps between them. Similar to the old LEDs of the distant past except instead of being an emitter of photons due to the manipulation of the properties of semiconductors the head lamp used MFE technology. Multi Frenquency Emission. Any spot on the wafer could emit light of any color and over a wide range of frequencies and simultaneously could be used as memory and configured to act as its own processing unit.  If made of the proper materials and with enough power the lamps could be used as a very powerful light emitting source approaching high temperatures on the surface where the lamp was aimed. Also it could be used as a sensing material.  MFE technology revolutionized the broadcasting of video when it was first introduced. In the fifty years since its inception it had only been improved never replaced. A signal to a collection of MFE fibers was straight data translation into light without the need for a core processor or digital compression.

“I believe I have something. I can cancel the light that is not reflected off of surfaces. I can program your suit to do this also. I will show you.”  Sharon said.

The image in Janos face sparkled and shimmered. Glimpses of what looked like a wall with row after row and columns of tubes details came into and then shifted out of view.  For a moment the image cleared tremendously, but was lost as Sharon cycled through the frequencies.

“Right there.  Back up slowly.”  Janos said.

Sharon recycled the last few seconds of her adjustment.  At the moment Janos could see again he shouted excitedly.

“Stop”

Janos could see into the ship a short distance. Even with the manipulation of the light he could only see 5 meters or so forward.

“Are you seeing this Sato?”  Janos asked.

“Yes. Sharon has adjusted my visor as well.”  Sato replied. “But I don’t see any detail.”

“Me either.”

Janos moved forward. The image shifted momentarily.

“Sharon?  Sharon?”  Janos called.

“Still here. I am bouncing the signal through commander Sato who is closer to the opening. But if she moves further in we will be cut off. The walls of this craft are perfectly shielded even from the power of the field the ship generates. Which makes sense.”

“Do you have any idea what the substance is yet?”  Sato asked.

“I am unable to examine anything beyond the surface details and I think those are incomplete. Whatever the substance is it is nearly perfect stealth technology. Whether that is by design or a consequence of design I cannot say.”

“What do you mean” Sato again.

“It is possible that the hull is designed to absorb, deflect, or cancel all wavelengths in the EM Spectrum. If that is true then all methods of possible detection other than crossing in front of a lit object, such as a star, is unlikely. This could either be on purpose or just be the nature of the material. It could be serendipitous technology such as the discovery of radio while playing with electricity and coils of wire.”  Sharon explained.

“Sato do you want to remain in the doorway and serve as an antenna or would you like to come in here?”  Janos asked.

“I can remain here. Actually I have an idea if you want to step back toward the doorway as you call it.”

“Okay.”  Janos moved backward until he felt Sato behind him.

“I will be right back.”

Sato moved back through the opening and moved quickly toward the pod. This took a couple minutes. The lower gravity making forward motion slow.  She opened the back hatch and went inside.  A minute later she was back out carrying two packages. Sharon helped her find her way back to the opening.  Sato began opening the packages.

Janos looked at the packages.  They read Thermal Blankets.

“Good idea commander.”  Janos said grinning.  Sato couldn’t see the grin. Good thing for  her. If she had she probably would have gone back to the ship and left Janos stranded.

Janos took one package and opened it. The thermal blanket was made of a material similar to his and Sato’s suits except they were large enough to cover two people and covered in a thin  metallic layer.  Janos spread the blanket against what felt like a wall to the right of the opening with part of the blanket in the opening.

“Sharon?”  Janos aked.

“Yes I understand. I believe it will work.”  Sharon replied.

“Resume visual parameters for the inside of the ship please.”  Janos asked.

“Resuming.”

Janos and Sato walked into the ship together. At the point where Janos first began to lose contact with Sharon he stopped.

“Sharon?”

“I am here. The lag time is manageable. The blanket is made to absorb heat externally and reflect  heat internally. Fortunately you placed it the correct way. Signal is acceptable.”

Janos laughed.

“Dumb luck I guess. I  hadn’t thought of that. I guess I had a fifty fifty chance.”

They moved further into the space.  Janos found if he moved his head sideways to what he was looking at the image was better.  They moved along  inching their way.  They examined every surface. Nothing appeared to be a doorway, hatch, control panel, or anything you would find on a ship. The corridor walls were smooth.  Janos ran his hands across them.

“This is weird. I don’t see anything I saw when I first saw the light.”  Janos said.

“What did you see?”  Sato asked.

“I saw large glass tubes. Hundreds of them.”

“That is weird. I saw what looked like fog  and wisps of steam or smoke. Then it was gone.  Sato replied.

Janos continued to search the wall with his gloved hand.

“Do that again. Slowly.”  Sato said.

Janos ran his hand across the walls slower this time.

“Yes. Yes I saw something back toward the opening. Lights like we saw when we first looked in. Keep moving your hand around.”

Janos continued to touch the wall. Brushing and pushing occasionally.

“Sharon I am watching the area where we came in.  Can you detect anything different about the lights based on the sensors in the captain’s glove?”  Sato said and then touched Janos on the shoulder. “You run your hand to a spot and then hold it until I say no then move it again. This may be a lock of some kind. Or nothing I don’t know. Sharon any input you have is welcome.”  Sato said.

“Proceed.” Sharon said.

Janos moved his hand to a spot and waited.

“No.”

He moved again.

“No.”

He moved again. And again. And again.  On the tenth try Sato said “Stop”.

“I see the two colors blue and red. Both seem to be steady. No change in wavelength or a pulsing of the signal.  Oh.”  Sharon suddenly exclaimed.

“What?”  Janos asked holding his hand still.

“I feel something through the glove. Move your hand up the wall slowly and if I say left, right, or down do that. Okay?”  Sharon said.

“Sure.”

Janos began moving his hand up the wall.

“Spread you fingers wider.”  Sharon said.

Janos did what he was told.  He wasn’t sure but he thought he could feel something too.  A small resistance or vibration of his glove against the metal as if passing through a magnetic field.

“Left”  Sharon said.

Janos slid his hand left and then leaped back as the wall in front of him peeled back and a rush of light flooded his visor.

“Damn.”  Janos said as the bright light assaulted his optic nerve.

Janos was blinded for a moment. He could hear Sato whistle in  his communications device.  He blinked rapidly and squinted into the room.  The room was enormous. If the symmetry held the other side of the room ended like it did here. Close to the outer surface of the ship. The room was round. Sato and Janos appeared to be in an outer ring. Toward the center a hundred meters away was a large ring and inside the ring plasma flowed up and across the ceiling where it was reflected and absorbed.  Janos didn’t know for sure but he suspected the normal operation of the plasma flow was to just move into the curved ceiling. Then the energy would be channeled into the ship and directed.  He was staring at the engine.

“Engine Room.”  Sato said.

“My thought exactly.”  Janos said.

Janos and Sato paused. They waited for Sharon’s input.  Nothing happened.

Janos cleared his visor so he could see without the use of the external digital optics.  Sato did the same.  Janos looked at the horrified look on Sato’s face as his visor cleared.  She stepped back quickly into the corridor almost stumbling.  Janos moved fast. Faster than he thought he could. Before she could fall he had caught her around the elbows.

“Let go!”  Sato screamed.

Janos let go quickly.

“What what?” Janos said.

Sato looked at  him terror evident on her face. She struggled to speak.

“Shar…shar..sharon can  you see this?”  Sato almost whispered. She sounded like someone trying to scream and talk at the same time. Like a scream sounds when you are screaming in a dream and wake up making feeble sounds.

Sharon did not answer.

Sato moved backward into the dark.

“Captain!  Janos!  Sato! Captain…”  Sharon’s voice yelled in her com system.

“I…I…can hear you Sharon.  The captain. He has changed.  He looks like a lizard.  We stepped into the room when the door open and I could see his face.”  Sato said.

“I suspected as much.” Sharon replied.

“What?”  Sato breathed and then backed up even further when Janos stuck his head back through the door and peered her direction.  He was waving his arms but if he was speaking she couldn’t hear him.  The light from the room must have been interfering with their communications.  She saw him pause and look at her, then back into the room, and then back at  her as if making a decision.  She saw him wave at her and step back into the room.  The wave wasn’t like a goodbye wave as much as a “forget you” wave.

“What do you mean you suspected as much?”  Sato asked breathlessly.

“I was monitoring him of course.  The moment you stepped into the ship his vitals began changing. I used the suits nano technology as a body scanner and could sense changes occurring.  I don’t know if he was aware it was going on.”  Sharon said.

“Why didn’t you say anything?”

“We are here to explore. The Captain wanted to explore. I saw no reason to….”  Sharon began and then trailed off.

“Sharon?  Sharon?”  Sato said.

“We have company. Outside. Near the pod. I have been monitoring the communications traffic on Asimov until they moved outside the stronger part of the field. Now I am doing good to maintain this link.  Odds are the person outside is, or was rather, Mr. Jennings.” Sharon said.


Chapter Thirteen

“What?  How? Is there a pod?”

“No. I am bouncing EM spectrum at him and only a very small portion is reflected. He is virtually identical in composition to the substance that makes up the hull of the ship.”

“What do I do?  I can’t fight him. He nearly beat the Captain and the Captain is a lot tougher than he used to be and still he almost got himself killed.”

“Return to the door and try to open it. I believe the captain was able to feel through the suit what to do. My logs indicate he moved his hand up the wall until the blue and red lights came on and then he moved them left about fifty centimeters up from a point parallel to your chest.  Join the captain.”

“But he’s like Jennings”  Sato said.

“No he isn’t. I assume you have heard the term “the devil you know”.  Sharon answered sharply.

“But..”  Sato began.

“Forgive me commander but it’s your ass. Captain Janos hasn’t done anything to  you. I don’t think  you will fare so well with Mr. Jennings.”

Sato looked toward the hole and began backing to where the door had opened.  She felt around.  She moved her hands quickly.

“No. Stop panicking. Slowly like the captain did. I will let you know when to stop. Hurry he is right outside as best I can tell.”

Sato breathed deeply and stilled herself. She moved her right hand around in circles slowly.  She felt nothing.

“Where is it. I can’t feel anything.”  Sato yelled.

“I don’t know. I can’t sense the field anymore. Move to the left.”  Sharon said quickly.

Sato moved to the left running her hand across the wall chest high as she went.  She could sense color out of the corner of her eye. She looked in the direction of the opening. She saw the faint blue and red lights and then something moved across them.  He was in the ship. She tried to calm herself and feel the field but nothing was happening.

“Oh my god. Oh my god.”  She cried. Tears streaming down her cheeks inside her helmet.  The she felt a hand grab her wrist and she screamed.

Suddenly she was bathed in light. Light so bright it hurt her eyes. She squinted and tried to see.  She fell to the ground as the powerful grip released. She rolled and scrambled away and squinting through the glare looked back. What she could see terrified her.  A tall figure three meters or taller stood washed in the light shielding it’s face.  A smaller figure clad in a shimmering suit swung a bar of something at the tall monster. It tried to defend itself but tried to shield it’s eyes at the same time.  The tall thing which must have been Jennings lunged forward and grabbed the captain in a bear hug making the smaller man drop the bar. It bounced and rolled.  Although the captain was smaller he wasn’t more than a meter smaller. His suit clung to him like a skin stretching to it’s maximum. He had grown taller. Now that she thought of it he had been growing steadily taller and larger since their talk with T’Shenge on the bridge of the Asimov.  But even though he was much bigger than  he used to be he was still no match for the much larger creature that now had him in its grip.

Sato watched afraid that the Captain would be crushed to death.  He reared back and smashed his helmet into the face of the monster that once was Jennings. The blow must have been powerful. It rocked the monster backward and it grabbed at its face but not for long. It’s large black eyes fixed on the captain again and it’s mouth opened in a snarl revealing what appeared to be metal teeth.  Sato scampered backward screaming. The only person that could hear her scream was herself. The sound was deafening.

The beast moved toward her after taking a sideways glance at the captain who was down on one knee.  It moved quickly. But the captain moved quickly too.  Sato saw the captain launch himself at the beast and land on its back. He heaved backward pulling the beast off its feet. The beast, very fast to react, jumped at the same time. Its powerful legs driving it upward. Sato eyes grew wide as she realized what it was doing.  It flipped up in the air and rolled over the captain who had slipped down to the floor again.  As it moved it grabbed his shoulder in a claw like hand. Even through the suit the pressure was enormous.  Sato watched the Captain claw at the hand.

The monster picked the captain up in one single hand like he weighed nothing and slammed him to the floor.  All the movements were swift and brutal.

The captain bounced off the deck like a rubber ball and then back down and lay motionless.  The beast stepped back. Stared at her with its demonic gaze. A large reptilian grin on its face and then brought it’s massive right hand back to club the captain.  Sato felt a rush of adrenaline.  She jumped up and moved quickly toward the door which in the blinding light was a black oval. At least that’s what she thought was the door.  The monster moved quickly. It abandoned the captain and with blinding speed moved between her and the door.  The malicious look in its eyes froze Sato where she stood in mid motion.  She backed away again.  She moved quickly toward the bar the captain had tried to beat the thing with.  The beast moved even faster.  Sato turned and ran.  She hoped she could run around the ring and escape.  She barely moved ten meters before she felt the claw land on her shoulder and her body wrenched into the air.

She waited for the slam. Her arm nearly pulled from its socket. Through the suit even though it had gone rigged as steel to combat the pressure of the claw she could feel it bearing down into her flesh and bone.  She screamed.  Then she felt herself hit the deck hard. She rolled to her side and looked back waiting for the thing to step on her and squash her like an egg. She saw instead the creature being pummeled by the captain with the rod.  His movements were fast. Faster than a human. They drove the creature away from Sato.

Sato saw what looked like a dance. A brutal vicious dance played out between a behemoth and a monster.  The captain struck at the beast’s arm and the monster moved to grab the pole, as it did the captain whirled and struck the monster in the leg buckling it. As the monster went to one knee the captain leaped into the air to avoid a sweeping kick of the other leg and he punched the monster in the face with the end of the pole as it swung around pivoting on its bent leg.  The thing rocked backward toward the center of the ring.  The captain landed and spun swinging the pole like a stick used in the old earth game baseball and the beast’s head snapped sideways and it rolled onto it’s side trying to follow the force of the blow shedding the force and avoiding having it’s neck broken. At the same time it flipped and tried to land on it’s hands and kick backward.  The captain expected this move but had no defense against it but to step back. This gave the beast the time to regain it’s feet and back toward the center of the ring and turn.

It stared at him. It slithered sideways and watched the captain. The captain moved and put himself between the beast and Sato.  Sato felt herself tear up again.  The Captain was still in there. He was protecting her with is life.  She watched. His hand went behind his back and he motioned toward the black void in the light.  He was motioning her toward the door.  She gained her feet and moved quickly.  The captain shifted his stance keeping himself between her and the beast.  She saw him stop and brace himself. The beast saw what they were doing and was charging their position.  Sato moved as fast as she could in the lower gravity.  She didn’t look back as she crossed into the void and felt the captain slam into her and the force push her through the opening.  Then it closed.

“Captain!  Janos! Captain!”  She screamed.

“He isn’t out here. He is still inside.” Sharon said.  Her voice sounding hushed.

“That thing is going to kill him. We’ve got to help!”  Sato screamed.

“We have no weapons.  What can we do?”  Sharon yelled back.

“Help me get to the ship. Take control of my suit. Move quickly.”  Sato said.

Sharon linked herself to the suit but the connection wasn’t good enough.

“You need to get to the opening. The blanket doesn’t reflect the signal well enough. Move!”  Sharon said.

Sato stumbled and groped and pulled herself back to the opening. She looked out through the inky blackness and saw the stars and the faint glow of Asimov’s engines as it continued to pull away.  Sato felt her feet slide under her.

“Lean forward.” Sharon said.

Sato leaned forward like a skier going down hill.  Sharon manipulated the suits electrical fields and Sato slid to the pod faster than she could have moved on her own.  Sharon slowed her as she approached the pod.

“Letting go.” Sharon said.

Sato stepped forward quickly like she had run out of slope and was in the rough ungroomed snow.  She stumbled and caught herself on the pod hatch.

“That was weird.”  Sato said.

The pod opened at her touch and she searched around.

“What do we have Sharon?  I can’t think of anything.  We don’t have weapons.  Not even a stun pistol.  Even if we had a hundred of them I don’t think it would stop that thing.”  Sato said pulling things out of their containers.

“Yes we do. We have a stun pistol about a million times stronger.”  Sharon said.

“The core?”  Sato said.

“Yes.  But you only need one of the three.  The charge in it will push two metric tons of pod for twenty kilometers. That much energy poured into a single point would melt a hole in the hull of the Asimov.”  Sharon said excited.

“Unlock the third core Sharon. Now.”  Sato commanded and began opening the panel that accessed the core power packs.

“If you do this you won’t be able to return to the Asimov.” Sharon said.

“Don’t care. Unlock it.”  Sato yelled.

“I thought so.  Core is disengaging.  Open the hatch. step back and let space cool the core or you won’t be able to touch it.”  Sharon said.

Sato tapped the sequence on the control panel that disengaged the locks on the engine core stack. She grabbed the edge of the panel and flipped it open quickly and stood back. The metal glowed hot but cooled quickly.

“Sharon?”  Sato asked.

“Not yet. The suit can withstand three hundred C.  Temperature is dropping fast. I will let you know.”

Sato waited.

“How do we deliver the charge?”  Sato asked pacing.

“I am searching through our current inventory and brainstorming.  It has to be something that will contact the second ring and the primary contact and bring them together when you want to discharge the cylinder.”  Sharon said.

“What if I just shorted the pack in close proximity. Would it detonate?  I seem to recall that early models if shorted would detonate.”

“Maybe. Or it might just flash and burn. Very very hot but not an explosion. The goal is to send the charge through Mr. Jennings”

“Or something else.” Sato said.

“You can pull the pack now.”  Sharon said. “Explain something else.”

“We need a coil and something hard and metallic that magnetizes.  And a firing mechanism.”

“Too complicated although it sounds interesting. I am thinking of cables from the outside of the ship. The magnetic shielding.  You clamp one to the secondary ring and the other you put into the recess at the end of the pack. Something hard and metallic might be better if  you could jam it into him but he may not be as easy to damage as you would like. Also wrapping a current carrying cable around an exoskeleton capable of allowing him to make his way here from the Asimov without a suit may not work either.  I am guessing your idea of detonation is the best idea.”  Sharon said.

“Me too. We don’t have time for complicated.”  Sato.

“In that case I am releasing the coil assembly that couples the pack to the engine. It is actuated by rotating the ring at the base. This will make the connection and short the pack. All you have to do is rotate it and have him  nearby when it overloads.”

Sato reached into the engine compartment again and pulled out the cylinder that was large enough to fit around the energy cylinder. The base of the coil assembly had a cap that was rotated mechanically within the engine to allow the energy stored in the pack to be tapped by the engine. With no where to go the energy pack would attempt to release energy anyway it could. Like a run away nuclear core in old nuclear reactors. Once the chain reaction began it was nearly impossible to stop it if the energy was not allowed to go anywhere.

The entire assembly weighed 50 kilos. Sato pulled it to the opening. She was glad she was on a ship in space otherwise she did not think she could have pulled the 50 kilos of weight.

“Sharon rig me up like you did the captain. Control my suit.”  Sato said.

“Trust me now do you?”  Sharon said.

“Shut up.”

Sharon used the fields again to move Sato quickly across the hull of the ship and to the opening.  Sato stepped inside. She moved to the area where she thought the door would be.  Her leg bumped up against something on the floor. Sharon had already adjusted her visual spectrum. She could see the other thermal blanket the captain had dropped.  Sato quickly bent down and opened it spreading it against the wall that faced what she thought would be the door to the engine room.

“I spread the other blanket out. I don’t know if it will help keep us connected when and if we open this door.”

“I can sense it but the field inside that room may scramble it. We will have to see.  Are you ready?”

“Yes.”

Sato ran her hand along the wall.  This time it was different. She felt the vibration this time. Just slightly. Like wetting your finger and running it around the rim of a crystal glass.

“Does this seem right?”

“It is my best estimate that you are exactly where the captain was when he was able to open the door the first time.”

“I guess that’s a yes.”

“Yes.”

Sato reached back and down grabbing the cylinder by its top. The handle at the top used to pull the cylinders out. She pulled it up.  She ran her hand up the wall and felt the oddest sensation.  The impulse to move her hand suddenly to the left. So she did.

Sharon was ready this time. Just prior to the door opening she applied filters to Sato’s helmet.  The light would not blind her this time.  Except it was completely dark.  Sato screamed inside her mind.

She heard Sharon’s voice.

“There is no dampening field. I am adjusting your display.”

Sharon cycled through the frequencies as she did before.

“Try infrared.”  Sato said.

Sharon switched to infrared.

Sato could see a large orange blob lying on the floor to her right.  She saw a larger red object moving to her left and far off.  Then it stopped.  The top of the blob seemed to turn as if looking in her direction.

“Damn it.”

Sato saw the blob, very large and very warm begin, moving around the outer ring. It was on the other side.  She looked to her right at the orange blob. It didn’t move.

“I think the captain is down. I’m not going to leave this ship to that thing. Nice knowing you Sharon.”  Sato said.

Sato bent down and tipped the canister over and rotated the bottom ring until it stopped. Almost instantly she felt a shock through her suit. The canister was releasing its power.  She stepped in front of it. Putting herself between it and the red blob moving in the distance.  She could tell it was moving around the ring she had seen earlier. She didn’t know if it also could see in infrared. She couldn’t imagine it heard her.  She moved between the red blob and the overloading energy cell. Perhaps her heat signature would obscure the overloading power cell long enough to let him get close enough for it to do some damage.  She waited.

It was moving fast approaching from her left.  She looked over at the orange blob.  It was gone.  The temperature of the room was nearly that of open space. If the captain was the orange blob and was dead he was now below the threshold of the infrared.  Sato began to cry.  Her captain was dead and this thing had the run of a ship with immense power and she was going to serve as bait to try and make sure that didn’t happen even if it meant giving her life.

Sato turned back to the left.  The red blob almost upon her now. She closed her eyes. She waited. Any second now she would feel the powerful hands on her pressure suit crushing her.  She waited.  Nothing happened.

Sato opened her eyes just in time to see the lights come back on.  Again she was blinded.  She blinked and hid her eyes. Squinting through the light she saw the captain running at her from the right.  The monster closing on her.  She did the only thing she could.  She flung herself back through the opening as the monster swung at her.  He looked through the opening at her in the corridor and moved in her direction.  Then he turned his head to his left.  The captain came flying from Sato’s right grabbing him by the head.  In a move Sato had only seen in digitized movies from the library in one titled Texas Roundup the captain bulldogged the beast. As he past over the beast he grabbed its head and pulled it sideways off its feet and brought the full force of his weight down on the monsters neck bouncing it‘s head off the floor hard.

Both rolled slowly from the impact.  The captain rolled to all fours and looked in Sato’s direction then his eyes shifted to the canister.  He scrambled after it.  The monster caught his foot and tripped him up. He hit the floor hard but kept clawing and kicking out of the monsters grasp until he reached the canister which now was glowing hot.  He grabbed the handle and whirled holding the 50 kilos as if it were a bag of feathers.  The blow caught the monster squarely on the left side of its face knocking it backward.  The captain jump on the beasts chest wailing away at it with the canister now sputtering and throwing off sparks.  He beat and pounded and threw every last ounce of strength he had into it. The canister bent nearly in two.  Then like she had seen in the movie he took the end of the canister and stuck it to the monsters face branding it.  If the thrashing was any indication the canister was hot enough to penetrate the tough skin of the creature.

The captain pushed off backward and back peddled swimming on the floor.  He moved back quickly through the door and stood up slamming the palm of his  hand against the side of it. Just as the door closed in on itself and turned back into a wall Sato saw a bright flash.

If she had not been in the vacuum of space she would have heard a tremendous explosion. As it was she heard nothing and felt nothing.

The captain towered over her now. Easily 3 and a half meters tall. His suit looked like it could come apart at any moment.  She stood up quickly looking at the place where the door had been and then to him.

“Can you hear me?”  Sato said breathing hard.

The voice that came back was not that of her captain. It sounded deep and resonated in a way that made her sound generators buzz in her ears.

“I hear you Sato. Wait. I am opening the door again.”

Sato waited.

The door opened again and the hulk of the beast fell through and landed face down at Sato’s feet. Protruding from its back was part of the canister.

“We don’t have much time. It will regenerate.”

Sato watched as her former captain picked up the huge body and put it over his shoulder.  He moved quickly along the right side of the ring.  As he moved he touched the walls. The plasma fountain started again.  She hadn’t realize it before but the second time she had been in the room, when the lights went back on, the plasma tower had been off.  Now it gushed upward like a geyser beginning as a blue shower then turning violet and green. As the captain walked towards it it began to stabilize until it turned white.  She also saw the body on his shoulder begin to twitch.  He moved quicker. He ran straight at the geyser and at the last second heaved the body at the column of light.  A claw grabbed at his helmet as it went by but the Captain quickly turned his head.  That was when Sato saw his face.

She looked down at the floor.  The man she had served under for many years. The man she had flirted with. The man she may have made love to was gone.  In front of her now stood a thing. Not a man.

Even looking at the floor she saw the bright flare of the body of Thomas Tobias Jennings burn up in the plasma fountain. Not even the modified body capable of withstanding space without a space suit could withstand the power of raw plasma.

After a few seconds she looked up. He was sitting on the floor.  His head between his knees.  She looked at him.  After a few seconds she moved toward him and put a hand on his shoulder. He reached around and patted it.  When he turned his face to her the face shield was opaque. She couldn’t see his face anymore.

“Have you noticed the plasma is under control now?”  He said. The voice buzzing in her ears.

Sato looked up.  The first time she had entered the plasma was moving across the ceiling and sputtering. Now the column was translucent white and simply moved into the ceiling and disappeared.

“I do now.  What happened?”

“I fixed it. This suit allows me to sense the ship somehow. Part of Sharon‘s upgrades. I turned out the lights by accident and I can’t explain it to you but  when you are interfaced with the ship you somehow know what to do next.  I knew how to turn them back on. When I did it must have rebooted the system because now it is flowing correctly. I know that because I can see it. I doubt you can detect it. You haven’t changed as much as I have but my eyes can register these bands of light moving up and own the column and they are moving symmetrically and rhythmically.  It just seems right.”

“You seem to be getting bigger. Will that suit contain you much longer?  Will you even need it?”  Sato asked.

Janos laughed.  It was his laugh even if it did sound like it came from the bottom of a well.

“You figured it out.  You were always very smart. That’s why I picked you as my second.”

“And it had nothing to do with my family making the engines I bet?”  Sato said. Her mood turning light.

“That didn’t hurt your chances any.”

“So you are staying?  How will you live? I don’t know for sure but if you are still breathing recycled oxygen then I am guessing you need oxygen. The suit won’t last much longer I don’t think. You aren’t the same as Jennings obviously.”

“That seems clear.  He was a lot stronger but not really smart.  Just primal. I don’t think whatever changed him left any of the man in him.”

“And you?

“As far as I can tell I am all here. My reflexes are better. I can almost see in complete darkness, some infrared too. Actually I don’t think it is sight. You saw my eyes.  Dr. T’Shenge would love to examine them I am sure. My heart feels like a hammer in my chest when I am exerting myself. it’s like this model was made for this.”

“This model?”  Sato said looking at him funny.

“I think I know the purpose of this ship. I also think in time I could learn to fly it.  I know I am not going back to earth with it. And I don’t think it should be here when they send the marines to board and seize it and tow it home.”

“So what is it’s purpose?”

“I think I know.”  Sharon’s voice chimed in.

“Hi Sharon. I didn’t know you were here.” Janos said.

“I was letting you two have some time alone.”  Sharon.

“Very thoughtful of you. Could you tell me the status of the Asimov?”  Janos asked.

“The Asimov is on a return course. As you probably suspect the dangerous fields are gone. What appear to be standby propulsion fields are present but not at the power and chaotic levels of before.”  Sharon said.

“Thought so. My accidental reboot of the system scrubbed whatever error was causing the problem.”

“You know what that means don’t you?”  Sato said looking up suddenly.

“I have ideas. What is  yours?”  Janos said.

“We can explore the rest of the ship.”

“If there was a rest of the ship.” Janos said.

“What?”  Sato said frowning.

“This ship is not supposed to have a crew. It is not a ship. It’s not quite a probe either. It’s a cultivator. A machine designed to do something incredible. The rest of the ship is just engine and power generation. And a transmitter.”  Janos said.

“I don’t even think it’s sentient.”  Sharon added.

“I don’t get it.”

“This machine was designed to spread life through the universe. It is capable of generating fields that alter DNA. I don’t know if it is preprogrammed such as to make things like me and Jennings or if we are just accidents. I believe it may be very old. It may have even started life on Earth.”

“I think not.” Sharon said.

“Explain.”  Janos said.

“There is a window of time in the geological record of both Earth and the planet Venus. The theory that Venus has a surface no more than five hundred million or so  years old. This correlates with the so called Cambrian Explosion or when multi-cellular or large scale life began on Earth.  There is also data that the Tharsus Bulge on Mars is from the same time period. Something happened in this system around that time.  This ship may have been it. Something it did caused a solar system sized cataclysm. ”

“The arrival of this ship turned the surface of Venus inside out and then caused the Cambrian Explosion of life?”  Sato said sounding incredulous.

“That is one way to look at it. Another is that whatever was alive on Venus, if anything, escaped and came to Earth.”  Janos said.

“Or this ship is from Venus of five hundred million  years ago.” Sharon said.

“Pure speculation.”  Sato said.

“Yes.”  Janos and Sharon said in unison.

“Here is something more plausible though. We already know the energy waves given off by this machine while it was malfunctioning were capable of not only altering DNA but doing it, even in a damaged state, in a somewhat constructive way.  Two crewmen were killed but me, Jennings, and you to a lesser extent were altered without dying. In fact one of the crewman died because doctor T’Shenge didn’t know how to treat him which was probably for the best but who knows where that change was heading. If in a damaged state this machine is capable of doing that then suppose what it does when it is functioning properly.”  Janos said.

“The mutations were pretty specific. Do you think they were preprogrammed as a pattern. Say a saved pattern that just happen to fall on you?”  Sharon asked.

“Probably. I don’t know of anything like me or Mr. Jennings in our knowledge of the evolution of human life. However if you notice we are both familiar in that we look reptilian. Maybe dinosaurs come from Venus.”  Janos said and chuckled.

Sato sat numb and dumbstruck at the possibilities.

“Hello. Rama. Is anyone there?”  came a voice over their communication sets.

Sato looked at Janos. Janos waved her on to talk.

“Sato here. Is that you T’Shenge?”

“Yes.  The computer says it is safe now. Whatever you did the field lines coming from the ship are extending out from the ends safely away from Asimov. We are turning around to come and get you.  It will take about four hours to bring Asimov within range of the pod.”

“The pod has one less power cell. Range is decreased.”

“Okay. Make that…uh wait a minute.”  T’Shenge said then paused. “Asimov’s AI says a little over six hours. Where is the Captain?”

Sato looked at Janos. Janos shrugged.

“I am here T’Shenge.”  Janos said.

“You sound weird. Is something wrong with  your com?”

“Yes. It was damaged in a fight with Mr. Jennings.”

There was silence for a few seconds.

“That explains why we couldn’t find him after the field collapsed. Asimov’s AI, er Isaac, said that Mr. Jennings could not be located. So he was able to make it over to you. I wonder how he did that?”

“I think  you will find the cargo pusher was used.” Sharon spoke up.

The cargo pusher was a magnetic rail that could accelerate a container up to significant velocities.

“Isaac says he can’t be sure. No data was retained during the emersion in the field. A good portion of the ship’s functions in the affected area are still offline. But you are probably right.”

“Be glad doc. You wouldn’t have wanted that thing on the Asimov with you when the field collapsed. It was a monster.”  Sato interjected.

“Was a monster? What happened to it…I mean him.”

“The captain beat it to death with a power cell and torched it in the ships engine.” Sato said.

“Captain?”

“I am not myself doc. I have grown considerably larger since we last met. Remember the dead crewmen of course.  I too am  no longer human. And we have to talk about that.”

“Uh….okay.  I don’t know what to say about that.”

“I am staying here. There will be no discussion about that. Can Isaac use the cargo pusher? Is it still functional?” Janos said.

“What do you mean you are staying there? That’s ridiculous.”

“I’m not asking you doctor and I don’t have the time or the inclination to debate. Now that the field is stable communications back to Earth will resume and every shred of information, including this conversation is on its way back to Earth. This ship can’t fall into the hands of any one on Earth. It is too powerful.  And believe me they will try to come and get it.”

“How are  you going to live there and to what purpose?”

“I am going to have Sharon stay with me and figure out how to get this ship moving. When we are a safe distance from Earth I am going to see what I can learn about it.  My rations are enough for a couple years. That’s what I want put into containers and pushed here by the cargo pusher.  Sato will be returning with the pod. I will also need a larger suit.  Sharon can manufacture it in engineering using the nano printer. She knows what I need.  She will also need something to contain her program.”

Janos stopped for a moment.

“Sharon. What would you need? I don’t know your capacity.”

“I have already begun working on the necessary equipment. Even without the help of the alien field I am intact. However I do sense the loss of what you might call growing capacity. My computer power is no longer as extensive as it was. If I remain perhaps I can occupy the alien computer or use the field to reestablish the capacity.”

“How long?”  Janos asked.

“Two days. I am simultaneously building the quantum circuits in engineering room 2 and building you a larger suit in materials printer room 1.”

“Sato.  Do you agree with this?” T’Shenge broke in.

“It doesn’t matter what I think. The Captain can do what he wants. I know he can’t return to Earth. There is no telling what they would do with him. You haven’t seen him. He is obviously not human anymore.”

“We can stop the manufacture of the equipment and the suit.” T’Shenge said.

“No you can’t.” Janos said calmly.

“You gave Isaac an order that me and Sato, if we agree, can stop any order you give.”

Janos laughed.

“You weren’t listening really well when I gave that order.” Janos said.

Sato looked at him sideways.

“Ask Isaac how many names are on the list of people who can give an order on Asimov. I will wait.”

There was a pause.

“Isaac said four. But you only said three.”

“No I said myself twice. You weren’t listening. Any two from that list, which would be me and myself can make an order. And besides. I really don’t think you want me back on board. The voyage home would be very uncomfortable for everyone.”  Janos said. His voice tinged with a hint of warning.

“I could leave you both.”

“Are you two about done?”  Sato said. “T’Shenge you don’t intend to strand me to die on this ship and you aren’t about to try and over rule the captain. This bullshit exercise is wasting time. The Captain cannot go back to Earth. They would dissect him like they used to do to animals. And if you haven’t noticed lately Earth isn’t the kindest place to be right now and the powers that be certainly don’t need something like this ship to take apart and backward engineer into the next doomsday weapon.”

Again there was silence.

“I still think it could be done but you are right. I would rather have that ship in the hands of Janos Yuriavich than just about anyone else. I will have the rations, and anything else we can spare, packed up and sent over. People are going to ask questions though.”

“Tell them to shut up and do their jobs. It’s always worked for me.”  Janos remarked.

“Aye sir.  T’Shenge out.”

Sato looked at Janos.  Janos suddenly lay back against the wall of the ship. The adrenaline that powered his huge body used up.  He felt like he could sleep for a week.

“Are you okay?”  Sato asked.

Janos waved a hand. The urge to sleep over powering him.

“I just need to rest awhile.  I am very tired.”   Janos said stretching and yawning. “I’m not going to be able to stay awake much longer. Can you keep watch while I rest a bit. You have a few hours until they can come around.”

“Sure. I can keep watch Janos. I owe you my life. It’s the least I can do.”  Sato said.


THE END of Part One



PREVIEW PART TWO

Janos Yuriavich opened his eyes and immediately sensed danger.  The sound of the engines was familiar. The room was familiar.  He was in decompression chamber 2 aboard the Asimov.  He leapt to his feet and strolled around what was now his cage.

“Sato!”  He screamed.  “Sato!”

He waited.

T’Shenge’s voice came over the intercom.

“You are awake Janos. I didn’t know if you were going to make it.”

“What is going on here T’Shenge?”  Janos growled.

There was a long silence.

“T’Shenge!”  Janos shouted.

“We came back around to pick up commander Sato. You were comatose. She was worried about your condition. We sent a second pod down. Put you two aboard and here you are.”

“Why am I locked up?”

“We didn’t know how dangerous you were and your room or the sickbay isn’t really big enough.  This will have to do for now.”

“Where are we? The Asimov I mean.”  Janos asked, his rage absent from his voice.

“We are returning to Earth. You are probably asking how far from the alien ship are we and the answer is five days at top speed.”

“Stop the ship. Turn back around. That’s an order.”  Janos said calmly.

There was another pause.

“I can’t do that.  The ship will be boarded in a few months when a special detachment gets here. You will receive medical treatment on Earth. We will not be taking  you back to the alien vessel.”  T’Shenge said. A little quiver in his voice.

Janos looked around.  While he was unconscious the inside of the room had been stripped of any controls and panels of titanium alloys welded over the areas a person might try to escape.  Janos boiled inside. His giant frame quivered and flexed pacing back and forth.

“Janos?”  T’Shenge asked.

“That’s Captain Yuriavich to you mutineer.”  Janos growled.

Again a long pause.

“Is that the way you see it…Captain?” T’Shenge said the nervousness in his voice even more pronounced now.

Janos smiled.

“You know it’s going to be a long trip back don’t you T’Shenge? You better open the outer doors now while you have a chance.”  Janos said in a hissing voice.

“We are prepared if you are able to escape the compartment.  And I am within my duty as ship’s physician to remove you from command. You know that. I would hope you would listen to reason.”  T’Shenge said.

Janos looked around his reptile like eyes scanning.  He noticed the difference in perspective from 1.9 meters to 3.5 meters. He saw aspects of the decompression chamber he hadn’t seen before.  He wondered if who ever worked in the compartment noticed everything important when he was prepping the room as a prison cell. Janos moved around the room poking and prodding, scanning and even sniffing.  Then  he saw it.  The video feed.  He looked straight into the lens and smiled.  His sharp unnaturally white teeth and wide mouth spread as far as his face could go.

“I’ve already seen my way out.  You still think I’m human. So you cage me like you would a human. See you soon T’Shenge.”  Janos said then smashed the camera.

T’Shenge looked at commander Sato.

“See what I mean?  Still think I was wrong?”

“Yes.  We could have left him there. Now you brought him on board and pissed him off. Pissing Janos off when he was just a two meter tall hundred kilo man would be a bad idea. Now you have a three and a half meter tall hundred and eighty kilo monster pissed off and he still has all of the Captain’s knowledge.”  She said as she went toward the bridge door.

“Where are you going?”  T’Shenge asked.

“I’m going to my room and stay there. When he comes looking for you I don’t want to be anywhere near you.”  Sato said her coppery colored eyes flashing.

“Who is going to watch the bridge?”

“Get one of the other mutineers. You’re in charge remember.  This is all you. As long as you are breathing anyway.  And when he finds out you disconnected Sharon you might want to do yourself a favor and commit suicide because I think that’s probably going to be the main reason he kills you.  I think he loved her.  You murdered her and when he finds out he’s going to tear you in half. Literally.”  Sato said then slipped through the door and out.

T’Shenge looked at the control panels.  The icon for opening the doors in decompression chamber 2 was right in front of him. He looked at the blank feed from the destroyed camera.  He mumbled.  “forgive me.” and pushed the button.