Chapter Seven
The cruiser dropped down in preparation to land in a rough mountainous looking area of the planet’s surface. There were some tents arrayed outside of a cave and in gesture to them Logan said, “We’ve been trying around the clock to find a way into this place, but so far we’ve had to pull back for fear of tripping a safety protocol that would trigger the mountain to implode.”
Nodding I continued to impatiently wait for the ship to land. Once landed I left the cruiser and pressed my way across the terrain until I entered a man-made tunnel that led up to a massive blast door.
The blast door was devoid of any ornamentation other than a single key code pad on one corner that glowed dimly in the shadowed interior of the tunnel. Removing my necklace I fit the chip key into the only slot available and had the satisfaction of hearing the locking mechanism click sharply.
The door screeched with heavy protest inwardly, but then abruptly stopped. The keypad no longer glowed at all. The power supply was done for. Not only was the power gone, but there was probably something obstructing the door from the inside given the protesting screech that had greeted our ears in the first brief few moments of operation.
Logan and I glanced at each other. Together we approached the narrow crack between the door and the surrounding tunnel. A tentative shove was enough evidence that there would be no budging the door.
“Step aside gents and watch a woman get it done.”
Amused I watched Briandy saunter up to the narrow opening. Her curvy figure wasn’t going to fit and I said as much.
She smirked, as she began to fit herself sideways through the crack, “You forget dear brother that a woman’s curves are designed to be molded and reshaped for a man’s benefit.”
I glanced to the side in time to see Edgar’s face go beet red at both Briandy’s brash words and the sight of her squeezing her chest flat in order to fit through.
As Briandy disappeared from view Logan said, “Your sister is a determined one.”
“More like a bullheaded showoff than anything else.”
“Hey I heard that! Don’t be jealous of me because I’m beautiful.” Came Briandy’s voice with an echo ring to it.
Aggravated I asked, “What’s obstructing the door?”
“Some rocks and beams….. oh God!”
“What!!!” I exclaimed in horror as I imagined by sister in some deadly peril beyond the immovable door.
Both Edgar and I had rushed to the crack to vainly try to squeeze through, only to stop at her words, “It’s nothing just some dead bodies.”
I knew my sister rather well. To hear her so choked up emotionally over some dead bodies wasn’t like her.
I heard rocks tumbling and the general sounds of exertion from the other side of the door for a drawn out period of time. Finally Briandy called out, “Okay see if you can budge it any. I’ll pull from this side.”
Together all four of us put our might against the door and it did indeed move inwards slightly. I called the extreme effort we were putting out off once a manageable distance had been achieved.
Switching on a portable light that I carried with me always I stepped into the dark musty air beyond the blast door followed along by Edgar and Logan. The sidewalls of the corridor were crumbled pretty badly, but an open passageway beyond remained intact.
The remains of about five people had been pulled off a slight distance by Briandy. What was haunting however was the sight of the grooves and gashes in the back of the blast door from where people had hammered away for hours if not days in order to get through.
Swallowing I turned away and with a squeezing hand to Briandy’s shoulder I then headed off down the corridor before us. Logan was beside me and glancing down I saw his rather odd looking gun drawn out and at the ready, “Tell me does that thing actually fire based off of explosive compounds?”
“Yep.” Came his laconic reply.
“Fascinating. I’m going to need to collect one of those at some point. You might as well put it away though as about the only thing with life to shoot at in here might be a spider or two.”
“I feel better just the same with it out.”
Commandingly I said, “And I would feel better with it put away. One shot from that thing and this whole place might collapse.”
I felt the heat of his gaze in the darkness, but I heard the gun slide into leather. Then under his breath I heard him mutter, “Sure can tell your family.”
I smiled, but didn’t say anything.
The hallway ended in a rather large gallery of tech screens and consoles. A layer of dust lay over everything in the sight of our lights including the corpses many of which were still slumped fast in console chairs.
“Think you can get us some lights Briandy?” I asked grimly.
“Half a second. There I think I got it.”
The gallery came to life as lights popped on here and there enough to illuminate the sad scene more fully. None of the screens popped on however except for one.
Drawn to it I stepped across the room carefully avoiding from stepping on corpses along the way that were laid out as if they had gone to sleep and never awoken. Reaching the lit screen I glanced from the slumped over corpse of a man that had fallen to his rest on the keyboard to the words on the screen that read like a journal entry.
“A note from one likely long dead to someone I pray is of my kindred. Assuming you are and that our work here was not in vain here goes. When the cataclysm befell us the order was given to evacuate. About half the personnel fled, but those of us in the know knew that there simply weren’t enough deep space ships in order to fit everyone. We made the choice to stay and further our work in hopes it would be of some benefit to those of our kind in the future. God willing as you read this that day has come. Anyway with the blast doors closed we did our best to shield the facility from the damage that was occurring on a planetary scale worldwide. In that, we were, for the most part successful. Some parts of the roof structure fell in on the Deep Truth, but fear not we managed to fix the damage. All went well for the first year of our captivity within the mountain. We dared not open the blast door for fear what would await us outside in terms of extremes in weather. Then after another year went by we discovered that we couldn’t open the door even if we’d wanted to. It was frozen shut. Better ice than lava I guess. Six months later our ventilation shafts to the outside were cut off, by we presume an incremental buildup of ice and snow. With but days of oxygen left to us one of our number came up with a means of using the Deep Truth’s oxygen scrubbers to augment our air supply. It worked, but it came at a cost of breathing abnormally high levels of CO2. That said we persevered on and I think it’s been about a year now. It’s hard to say for sure as the levels are really high now and it’s hard to even frame the words for this message. Let’s see…… Oh we got it fixed. The Deep Truth can now travel through deep space. It took us a while, but with little else to do we made some new science. While we were at it we honed all the ship’s systems some more in terms of peak performance. We would’ve liked to have taken it for its maiden journey ourselves, but the hanger doors won’t open. Too much snow I guess. To whichever fleet commander may find this last creation of Soluranami’s greatness all I can say is enjoy the ride. May you always be free. Over and out.” Edgar finished with emotionally, as he’d read the whole message out loud.
In the moment of silence that followed I reached out and patted the dry bones of a man who’d worked unselfishly to ensure the future of others. Turning away I approached a long wall of windows.
Briandy, even though I could still hear her crying was back at work on a wall panel nearby. Lights flickered on and began to illuminate a truly massive hanger bay. The Deep Truth sat in radiant untested glory squarely within the expansive bay. I’d never seen anything like it ever.
As a ship it had the mass of two motherships and perhaps even more. The amount of resources alone to construct such a ship was unimaginable.
Truly the Deep Truth was the most epic of all ships I’d ever come across. If we’d only had such a ship fully operable when we had been forced to flee our world hundreds of years before how things would have been different! The past was just that though, but the future sat dully gleaming before me now in awe defying splendor.
“It’s big.” Briandy breathed out.
“Briandy I need you to get back to the fleet. Everyone who’s competent and not needed by Taran to man the other ships I want you to bring here. Make sure to bring Randelon with you. Be as quick about it as you can.”
Nodding hurriedly she rushed off followed quickly by Logan.
Turning to Edgar I said, “Well my good man shall we break open the hatch and see what surprises she holds?”
Edgar however still seemed to be in a trance of some sort. I shook his shoulder and he seemed to snap clear of his mentally induced fog.
“Sorry what were you saying?” He asked.
“It’s not important. Let’s go see what deep truths are to be discovered.”
“That’s terrible!”
Laughing I continued on toward a gangway that seemed to lead into the hanger bay.
*****
Without a little guidance I would never have found a way of gaining access to the ship, but it’s faithful builders had left a series of notes along with a roped off corridor that led me directly to the primary hatchway. Again I found the need to use the chip code key that had been handed down to me through the generations of my fathers.
It was simply beyond any coincidence how I, a fleet commander, should still be alive and in possession of the only item that could unlock such a hidden potential of power as this. With a mechanical purr of well-tuned machinery a gangway extended down from above.
There were nearly three flights worth of stairs to climb in order to reach the interior of the ship. Massive wasn’t the word for this ship.
Well, could I see how such a ship as this, let alone a fleet of them, would have been able to travel to the farthest corners of the universe destroying every fallen kind of species that it came across. Reaching the doorway I paused as I gazed inward at the dazzling display of circuitry and lights illuminated from within.
Stepping within the hull I was overwhelmed by the spirit of newness that was about everything I saw. All my life I had been forced to cope with the broken down hand-me-downs of my fathers before me, but not this ship. She was brand spanking new.
Cautiously I made my way further through the ship. At the first the motherships had possessed artificial intelligence aids, the systems had for the most part worn out or more accurately put been intentionally shorted out because of the aggravation of being told over and over what dire consequences the state of the ship was in and that death wasn’t far off if repairs were not made at once.
The AI intelligence had been more of a nuisance than a help in such circumstances. Knowing what I did though of the past it didn’t come as a great surprise when a technological image appeared to stand before me out of nowhere. On the other hand Edgar about jumped out of his skin.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to startle.”
Edgar upon straightening his clothes said determinedly, “That’s all right. I’m getting more and more used to the unexpected occurring on an ever more frequent basis.”
The AI in the form of a woman dipped her head in acknowledgment before turning her face to mine, “Captain you should know that my scans indicate an imminent mass invasion of this world by hostile forces.”
“You don’t say.” I said tongue-in-cheek.
She blinked electronically and I preempted an answer to a rhetorical question by asking, “Which way to the bridge?”
She pointed and I took off in that direction.
“Anything I should know about before starting this baby up?”
“No Sir. All systems are completely integrated. It is possible to fly the ship solo, but I recommend against doing so as maintenance protocols and situations of the moment may mount at too great a rate for one person to effectively manage.”
“Yeah I figured as much. This isn’t my first adventure. By the way you don’t happen to have a shut off function do you?”
“I do.”
“Bear that in mind.” I stated threateningly.
Edgar eased up beside me to whisper, “You know she’s not real right?”
I gave him a, ‘are you for real look.’ And he hurriedly said by way of explanation, “Well I didn’t know! You threatened it with being put to sleep if it continues with annoying details. Why would you threaten a machine as if it were a person?”
“Because, my good doctor, things are not always what they seem. I came across an AI system on a captured vessel once that I swear to you was fully demon possessed. I literally along with some other believers had to cast the thing out of the ship long after all the physical circuitry that made the AI system functional had already been removed. When humans make things they have a tendency to want to play God and they go a bit far at times in terms of making things that are artificial far too seemingly real instead.”
“You speak of a great truth.” The AI to the other side of me said.
Edgar and I glanced at each other and meaningfully he whispered, “I see what you mean.”
“Yes, man’s technological achievements have often proven to be the source of destructive elements to not only himself, but to other life forms.” I commented in reply.
“Again you speak……”
“Shut it!” I said cutting the AI off from continuing further.
Finally after what seemed like walking the distance of two motherships back to back we came upon the bridge, which constituted the primary control room for the Deep Truth.
“Well that took a while, but I have to say it was quite worth it to see all this!”
“We do have an inner ship transport system.” The AI cautiously informed from the background.
“Well why didn’t you say so?” I exclaimed.
“You stated a wish for my silence.” The AI defended.
I watched Edgar shiver and turn away to start going over the abundant functionality of the vital ship systems displayed throughout the massive bridge. I did the same and blessedly the AI allowed us to quietly explore without interjecting hints, tips, tutorials, statistics, or just plain annoying comments. It would seem it was learning just as we were.