4
Dar’s heart pounded, his throat went dry, and he shook nervously. He was in space. The good-byes to his mother and Garnic were bitter sweet. He hoped he could come home in a few months and see them. But space life tended to be busy; Gwog took jobs all over the galaxy, and Dar knew he’d be away for quite some time. He felt confident they would be all right.
The small shuttle approached the stern of the Cunik. Dar pressed his face against the glass in the back compartment trying to take in every ounce of the spectacle. He was so excited he felt ill. His stomach churned, and nervous prickles shot through his body. In a few minutes he’d be standing inside his new home.
“Youngling?” Gwog called.
“Yes, sir?”
“Come up here.”
Dar took the few steps forward to the cockpit compartment. “Yes, sir?”
“Take a seat.” Gwog gestured to the empty co-pilot seat.
He kept his eyes focused out the window, the freighter loomed even closer. Carefully, he slid into the seat. “Wow.”
“Now, take your hands and rest them lightly on the helm.”
“Yes, sir.” Dar did as instructed.
“As part of my crew, you’ll learn everything you can about the Cunik, the shuttles, weapons, and cargo handling equipment.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Your mother said you did well in astro-physics.”
“Yes, sir, I had the highest grades in the class,” Dar replied.
“Good, good. Then I’m sure you’re familiar with mapping and charting.”
“They taught us some; most of it was terrestrial mapping.”
Gwog made a slight adjustment in course. “Space isn’t much different—there’s just another dimension to worry about.”
“The Y axis, right? The third dimension.”
“Correct. Although the Ontarrin galaxy is more of a spiral galaxy, and the concentric rings hold all the planets, you do have a variation in those rings where the planets actually lie…And you need to know where all the drifting meteor and asteroid belts are.”
“Ah, yes, I suppose those would be rather dangerous,” he said, still holding his gaze out the window.
“So, what do you know of our galaxy?”
Dar felt his breath catch in his throat. He knew as much as school taught, and what research he’d done on his own, but now he was addressing someone who lived and worked daily in the places he’d only read and fantasized about. “Uh, well, I know the galaxy is made up of twenty-four rings, starting with the inner most Alpha sector, which contains the Ontarrin sun and Carfidius, the tar planet.”
“Yes, go on.”
“And it ‘ends’ about seventy-six thousand light years away with Regalein 9 and Omerik in the Omega sector…From one side of the Omega sector to the other is one hundred and fifty-two thousand light years—give or take.”
Gwog glanced over at Dar. “And how many planets?”
“Umm, excluding the sun, forty-one, sir.”
“Good.” He lined the shuttle up on the approach lights. “And you know the galaxy is roughly divided in half?”
“Yes, sir. Although I’m not sure why they got the names they have—didn’t really elaborate on that in school.”
Gwog slowed the shuttle as it entered the containment field. “The names are rather misleading. The ‘light side’ of the galaxy contains many of the supposedly ‘first settled’ planets. Travelers from other galaxies arrived and set up housekeeping. Once established, they went forth and explored the ‘dark side’ of the galaxy—where they encountered species that weren’t always so friendly to their explorations.”
“But planets like Viguris and Gardinis are on the dark side, and they’re supposed to be extremely peaceful.”
“See? It really doesn’t make sense. But after the intergalactic war was over, a ‘line’ was drawn, and the two halves got those names…It does divide the galaxy into trade regions, though.” He landed the shuttle and turned off the engine. “Welcome to your new home.”
Dar peered out the front window. They were in a grand expanse of a bay. Three other shuttles of varying size were parked to one side. Ahead, the crew of the Cunik stood awaiting them. Never in his life had he seem such a hodge-podge of aliens. They were dressed in varying shades of black and brown Catarin hide clothes. Most he didn’t even recognize as a particular species—except one: he had a shock of green hair atop his tall, slender build. The remainder of the hair on his head was white from age. Dar had never seen a Satiren that old.
“That’s Jartis, he’s my engineer,” Gwog said, knowing Dar would have taken notice. “He’s half Satiren, half Priddin.” He eased himself out of the pilot’s seat. “Come on.” Going to the back, he opened the door, and let down the short gangplank. “I’ll introduce you to the rest of the crew.” They went around and stopped in front of the motley batch of aliens. “Everyone, this is Dar. He’s going to be a new crew member…Treat him with respect, as you would like to be treated.”
“Greetings, Dar,” Jartis said, he stood first in line. “Half Satiren and what?”
“Uh, Earthling,” Dar replied softly. There were hushed comments amongst the others.
“Earthling?”
“Yes, sir. My father came to this galaxy by a worm hole.”
Jartis scratched his head. “By accident?”
“Yes.”
He offered his hand. “Welcome to our crew, youngling.”
Dar took his hand. “Thank you.”
Gwog gave Dar a little bump. “Next to him is Rokit, assistant engineer.”
He regarded the interesting looking alien standing in front of him. Rokit stood about 6 feet tall, was basically humanoid looking with the exception of his huge ears. “Umm, are you a Gundin Tree Dweller?” he asked.
Rokit chuckled. “Yes, I am…I’m one of the few purebreds on the ship.”
Gwog pointed. “And next to him is Wenin, cargo engineer…He’s half Vigurian Clapsor, half Lanterian…Then we have Barnig, assistant cargo engineer. He’s half Appolonian, half Zumikkian.” He nudged Dar down the line. “And here’s Tregis, he’s chief navigator.”
Tregis held out his hand. “Hello, Dar, nice to meet you.”
“A…pleasure,” Dar said awkwardly, reaching up to take his hand. Tregis stood probably 7 feet tall, had dark brown skin, a long neck, arms, and legs, large blue eyes, and pale orange hair. He was indeed a strange looking alien.
“Then there’s Vikkis, assistant navigator. You’ll be working with him a lot,” Gwog said. “He’s part Thokin, part Brudin Halgar…Don’t let his teeth scare you, he’s actually a rather nice fellow.”
Vikkis smiled, showing pointed, razor-sharp teeth. “Hello, Dar.”
“Hi,” he replied. A few years ago, he’d met a couple Thokin Elemenels and took a liking to them. Their creamy blue skin and fleshy tendrils hanging from their heads like hair intrigued him. Vikkis seemed to have most of the Thokin features, except for the teeth.
Gwog continued down the line. “Next to Vikkis is Julaton. He’s half Bodnarian, half Uyoninain—one of my deck hands…Then we have Putchic, another deck hand. Half Kiburgin, half Sirrixian.” He leaned down to Dar’s ear and whispered: “Don’t mess with him, short temper.”
Dar nodded. “Yes, sir.”
“Next to him, we have the twins: Ethoic and Pthoic. They’re part Flokinian and Coreonin…Ever see anything like them?” He gestured to the brothers who stood about 6 feet tall. They had shiny dark gray skin, black eyes, spinal and brow ridges, long sharp teeth and sharp claws. Although they stood upright, they more resembled a species of sand lizard Dar used to catch on Erotis.
“No, sir.”
“They haven’t been with me long, but they’re good workers; and awfully nice despite their imposing looks.” He stepped in front of the last two. Here’s Karnis, and his son Xetroiss. They’re purebred Tempricians. Karnis is head cook, Xetroiss is assistant.” Gwog regarded Karnis. “The youngling here can whip up a mighty fine Erotin sage root float.”
“Ah. You like to cook, youngling?” Karnis asked.
“I used to help my mother a lot.” Dar wasn’t sure if he’d just opened his mouth and got sentenced to kitchen duty. At any rate, he was happy to be away from Krodus and the other purebreds that made his life miserable. Here, it seemed like he’d fit right in. He knew hard work would be expected of him, and he wasn’t afraid to jump in and do his share.
Vikkis sat in the chair at the charting station. Dar stood behind, watching. He’d been shown to his quarters, dropped his belongings off, and reported to the bridge. It was a large area with several stations in which to work. The whole bridge was painted in a light gray. Instead of grated metal flooring, there was a real, solid floor covered with thin, dark gray carpet. Despite the evident age of the ship, the bridge was neat and tidy.
“All right, everyone, let’s get going.” Gwog wanted to break orbit, so they hurriedly went to work.
“Tell me youngling, this is your first experience in space?” Vikkis asked.
“Yes, sir.”
He worked on the computer. “What draws you to this great, black void?”
“I’ve always liked the stars…They don’t judge me.”
“Get beat up in school a lot?”
Dar sighed. “Yes, sir.”
“Me too. I may be half Halgar, but I was born and raised on Iddris where there were Thokins and many other races of aliens…None of which appreciated a half breed.”
“Same on Erotis, although I lived in Aknarra, which is primarily Satiren, I got the shit beat out of me seemingly every day.”
“Unusual. Satirens are normally a peaceful race.”
“Not to a half breed. A Satiren male won’t even take a female if she has a half breed youngling.”
“Fascinating, I never knew that.” Vikkis programmed some coordinates into the computer. “What do you know of Guonis?”
“It’s where the gold drig strips come from.”
“Correct. We’re heading there, but first we’ll make a stop on Skrinnis to offload some Jamaraian rum.” He reached down, opened a compartment next to his legs and pulled out a rolled map. “Take that over to the chart table and lay it out.”
“Yes, sir.” Dar did as instructed. As he rolled the map out, he gently passed his fingers over, seemingly touching all the planets in the galaxy. Putting his finger on Erotis, he traced the course to Skrinnis and on to Guonis. If he guessed correctly, they were about sixty-three thousand light years from Skrinnis, due to the planet’s location in the Epsilon sector.
“Well, youngling? How about charting our course?” Tregis said as he stood over Dar.
He turned and looked up. “Uh…”
“Come, come, it’s really not that hard.” Tregis opened a drawer and took out some odd looking tools. Dar had used a compass, dividers, rulers, triangles, and a sextant in school; but this equipment had him clueless. “This…youngling, is a Lanterian compass.” He pointed to the device. “And this, a Sirrixian triangle.”
Dar reached over and gently picked up the triangle. It wasn’t even triangular shaped. “I’ve used triangles before, but not like this.”
Tregis picked up another tool. “This is a Bodnarian ruler.”
“That looks a little more like something I know.”
“Now, watch and learn.” He proceeded to use the tools to map out the course, then he jotted it down on a slip of paper. “Here’s our coordinates, and that’s where we’re going. Skrinnis is sixty-three and a half thousand light years from our current position.”
Dar smiled. “Hmm, not a half bad guess.”
“What?”
He drew his finger across the map. “I’d guessed it about sixty-three thousand light years.”
“Was that an educated guess?”
His smile broadened. “Yes.”
Tregis laughed. “Ah, a smart one for once!”
Gwog came over and plopped a big hand down on each of their shoulders. “So? Is the youngling proving his worth?” He looked at Dar. “Although, I shouldn’t call you youngling.”
“I still kinda am.”
“No, no, you’re an adult now…You are, however the little one of the crew.”
Dar wasn’t exactly sure he appreciated being saddled with that nick name. It was true; he was the smallest one of the crew. Even at six feet tall, he lacked the sheer musculature the others had. Jartis happened to be the only other close in size. And Dar felt confident no one dared call the chief engineer little one.
“He needs to learn the tools, but his dead-reckoning skills are quite good,” Tregis said.
“Good,” Gwog replied as he let his hands slide and disappeared back to his place on the bridge.
Dar picked up the Bodnarian ruler. “Uh, sir?”
“Please, call me Tregis.”
“Oh, um, all right…How come we have to chart our course on a map when this ship seems to have loads of fancy computers?”
“What do we do if the computers are down?”
Dar scratched his head. “Well, then we’d use paper maps and do it the old-fashioned way.”
Tregis wagged a finger at him. “You’re missing the point youngling. If we rely on computers all the time, and then one day they don’t work, how many will remember how to ‘do it the old-fashioned way.’ Huh?”
“Point taken, sir.” Dar said softly.
“Now, let’s take what we have and go lay in the course.” He led Dar over to the navigator’s control console. “On most freighters, the majority of the controls are on one console. But because the Cunik’s so damn big, she needs a larger crew to make sure she can safely get through space.”
“If I may ask, how big is this vessel?”
Tregis slid into the seat and immediately started inputting the coordinates. “She’s about a mile long…The forward cargo bay can hold a straight load of just over half a mile…The aft is divided into eight sections for smaller shipments…And the engine room and shuttle bay, of course.”
“How fast is she?” Dar almost felt like his brain couldn’t suck up the information quick enough. But he was going to make a concerted effort.
“Well, all that cargo carrying capacity comes at a cost. She can do warp six on a good day with a solar wind at her backside,” he said with a chuckle. “Captain, course laid in for Skrinnis.”
“Aye,” Gwog replied from his chair on the bridge. “Helm, take us out.”
“Aye, captain,” Vikkis called. He’d “changed hats” and was now at the helm controls. In the short time Dar’d been aboard, he noticed most of the crew had more than one job. He wondered what his jobs would be. He was fairly confident once he learned all the tools, he’d be filling some sort of navigational function. And with Gwog’s praise of his Erotin sage root float, he figured the kitchen would be the other. But, from the captain’s talk earlier, he’d be getting experience in every part of the ship. He couldn’t wait.