Chroniech! (35 page)

Stricklen felt a twinge of anger well up inside him but he quickly quelled it. In a level voice he replied, "Because I gave them my word that before we abandoned the search for their people I would allow them to look at their home star with their own eyes. Does anyone else have any other comments to make before I adjourn the meeting?"

Falnath, whom Ken had seen very little of during the entire trip, stirred in her corner and said, "I do." As all eyes turned toward her, she fixed her own sights on the Kyrra representative who had attended the meeting. "Did your people have a method of signaling distress in the event of a problem with one of your ships?"

Trel'mara hesitated for a moment. He had not expected a question to be directed at him. "If you are referring to a distress signal similar to your own, yes we do or, rather, did. Like yours, it uses a pulsed spherical superluminal wavefront much like a ship's drive wake only it is harmonically encoded with the ship's location."

Most faster than light communications were carried out using a signal which was beamed toward the receiver. This provided a lot of power in a small area and allowed the signal to travel for great distances before it dissipated. A distress signal used a spherical signal much like the old-style radio waves. However, because of the shape of the signal, the range was very limited. The advantage of such a distress signal was that it broadcast in all directions instead of being beamed to a single recipient.

Falnath turned toward the captain and said, "I would like to modify our own distress beacon to emit a Kyrra-style distress signal and to send it once every ten minutes."

"To what purpose?" Ken asked.

"If the Kyrra are nearby it is remotely possible that they still monitor this area of space," Falnath replied. "They may not wish to be found, but if they detect a distress signal from one of their own, they may be curious enough to investigate its source. We have nothing to lose."

"Other than attracting the attention of every other spacecraft in this part of the galaxy," Scarboro scathingly replied. "If we start transmitting a distress signal we will have every alien ship in the sector vectoring in on us, some of them may not be very friendly."

"You are mistaken," Trel'mara spoke up, surprising everyone in the room. "Even in my time, we wished to avoid contact with other races. We therefore developed a distress signal which would remain undetected by anyone who was not specifically monitoring for it. Your own sensors would register the signal as a random noise spike. Only a Kyrra receiver will be able to receive and decode the message."

"Then why are you here?" Falnath asked.

"I do not understand your question," replied Trel'mara.

"You just stated that you had a distress signal which could only be picked up by the Kyrra. Yet, you placed yourselves into stasis because you claimed you could not risk sending out a distress signal which would be picked up by another race. The two statements are inconsistent with each other."

All eyes turned toward the group of Kyrra. "Our ships and transmitters were destroyed during the slaver invasion. Slaver beacons cannot be modified to emit a Kyrra signal. We did not have the time nor the resources to build new transmitters. The Hess communications equipment was built by my people and therefore it might already possess all of the necessary capabilities to generate a proper distress signal."

"I am satisfied with that," Stricklen said. "Try making the modifications to one of our own FTL transmitters first. I don't want to do anything which may affect the Hess equipment unless we have to. We will be setting course for the Kyrra home system. Meeting adjourned."

It was quickly discovered that the existing FTL transmitter aboard the Komodo Dragon could not be modified to produce the desired signal. Trel'mara, Bucannon, and Falnath then undertook the task of making the required modifications to the Hess installed transmitter but before they had even begun another possibility presented itself. Before beginning though, they needed Stricklen's approval. The group decided to grab something to eat and Ken met them in the mess area.

"Why can't we modify our transmitter?" Stricklen asked as soon as he was brought up to date.

Trel'mara held a stalk of celery in one hand as he talked. "The frequency required is far beyond the abilities of your transmitter. The field complexities involved and the harmonic signal encrypting are also not possible with your transmitter. The Hess transmitter would have to be heavily modified and in doing so it would no longer be usable as a communications device. The stardrive powering this ship was built by my people and as such is capable of generating the desired signal."

Stricklen finished a bite of his own meal then said, "A stardrive that doubles as a transmitter? Won't that interfere with its operation? I don't want to have to take the drive off-line to make these changes."

Falnath, who had restricted herself to a large drink because her normal eating habits would have caused the others at the table to quickly lose their appetites, replied. "The stardrive we are now using has several unique features which our own drives do not possess. Kyrra stardrives were designed to double as FTL transmitters. The emitters are similar and the power available to a stardrive is many times that available to a standard transmitter. This will also give us a much greater chance of a Kyrra monitoring station picking up the signal."

"It can't be that simple," Stricklen commented still not sure of the feasibility of what was being proposed.

"Actually, it is," Falnath replied. "All that is required is to connect the control circuits to an appropriate interface in order to activate the distress signal feature of the drive. We will need to build an interface to convert our location coordinates into the coordinate system used by the Kyrra. The drive will not have to be taken off-line but when we are ready to begin transmitting we will have to make a minor adjustment to our velocity in order to match certain field dynamics to allow the signal to be propagated."

"How long?"

The chief engineer paused in his efforts to slice a piece of steak. "I've glanced at the plans of the proposed interface and interconnection diagrams. I would estimate about twelve hours to assemble it, an hour or two to make the connections, and another four to align the interface. We should be able to start transmitting in a couple of days. I don't see the need to work this one around the clock."

"I agree," Stricklen answered. "Just let me know when you are ready." The rest of the evening's conversation turned to unofficial matters.

Two days later, Stricklen received word that the interface was ready. A barely noticeable minor speed adjustment was made and the first signal was transmitted. From that point on, the signal automatically repeated itself every ten minutes. As the days wore on, Stricklen quickly forgot all about the signal. Before they knew it, the light of the birthplace of the Kyrra shown on their screens.

All five Kyrra were on the bridge as the Dragon entered the star system. Following standard procedure, a full scan was initiated. The more advanced Kyrra designed stardrive allowed the heavy-cruiser to penetrate deeper into the star's gravity-well than an Alliance stardrive would have. After an hour, Ken ordered the ship to make the shift to the sub-light drive.

"What a mess!" the science station announced after looking at the preliminary results of the system scan.

"Be more specific Mr. Stillman," Ken said in a warning tone.

"Sorry sir. What I meant was, this system's planetary population has become completely unstable. According to our data, the system originally consisted of eleven planets, all in a standard orbital plane. There are now only eight remaining and their orbits are highly elliptical and skewed off the normal orbital ecliptic. I'll put it on the main."

The crewman entered a command into his console and the main viewscreen shifted to show a representation of the planetary system. Thin lines representing the projected orbits of the planets appeared. Ken had never seen another star system like it. Each of the eight planets had highly elliptical orbits. Instead of being all in a common orbital plane, the planets had orbits which tilted crazily to one side or the other.

"Picking up several large asteroid fields in various orbital planes," Stillman continued. "The two planets in sensor range show massive meteor impact damage. Long-term orbital dynamic calculations predict that the inner two planets will eventually collide with each other within another thirty thousand years and the outer planet will be ejected from the system altogether."

"You were right the first time," Stricklen remarked. "This system is a mess." Turning to the cluster of Kyrra guests he said, "I'm sorry, perhaps we should not have brought you here."

Norgoola answered for the group. "This eventuality was predicted and is an unchangeable act of nature. Seeing it only confirms in our hearts that our home is no more and my people have either become extinct or have moved on to a better place. We thank you for allowing us to see our home one last time. Now that we have done so there is no further need to remain here."

Stricklen watched as the Kyrra filed out of the bridge and the door slid shut behind them. Poor devils, he thought. Taking a deep breath to still the feelings inside him, Stricklen turned toward the helm and said, "Set a direct course for the Alliance, maximum possible speed. It's time to go home."

The helmsman turned to his console to carry out the command. Stricklen watched as the stars spun around in preparation for leaving the system. A few seconds later the Dragon headed back into deep space.

As soon as he was able, the helm made the standard announcement to alert the crew that they were transiting to stardrive. As the matrix field began to form the entire mass of the ship suddenly shuddered. Alarms instantly started sounding and several indicators glowed an angry red. "Report!" Stricklen ordered.

"We've been seized by a tractor beam," the helm announced. "Matrix field has collapsed. Routing emergency power to propulsion system."

"Battle stations! Tactical, get me a fix on the source."

"Someone must have picked up that undetectable distress beacon," Scarboro sneered as he started for his post in CIC. "I knew we shouldn't have taken the risk," he shouted over his shoulder as he dashed out of the control room.

Over the clamor of the alarms, people passing information to each other, and the other noises of a warship preparing itself for battle, Ken heard the tactical station say, "Direction zero four three point eight tack one niner five point two; distance unknown; no targets identified."

Ken quickly put the coordinates into perspective — the tractor beam was coming from the direction of the star! The other ship must have been using the solar radiation to mask it presence. But how had they missed the drive wake?

One by one the various alarms were silenced, but the danger still existed. A tactical plot appeared on the main screen showing the unseen tractor beam as it tugged at the ship. A secondary screen showed the ship's vital stats.

"Shear away," Stricklen ordered. "CIC I need a target!"

The helm punched a few keys on his console and announced, "I'm at maximum emergency power now sir. No effect. The tractor is cutting right through our defense shield and we can't break free. We're being pulled toward the sun. Velocity is now 23 KPS star relative and increasing."

Stricklen's hands flew over his command console. A rapid succession of screens flashed before him. With a practiced eye he gathered the important information from each of them and assembled a picture of what was happening.

A tractor beam of enormous power had reached out and grabbed them. The source of the beam was as yet unknown but was located in the direction of the star. Sensors could not analyze the beam's field structure and therefore could not provide any information as to how to break free. Even with the ship's engines at full power they had not had any appreciable affect on the beam's ability to drag them toward an unknown destination.

"Dragon, shutdown override on all reactors. Authorization omega theta one seven sigma four. Helm, take the engines to 130%. Watch the internal temperature and back it off if it approaches 620 degrees. Engineering, monitor all reactors and advise the helm if any are approaching any ultimate red-zones. CIC, do we have a target?" Ken spat out the series of orders.

"No target identified," Doug's voice came from the speaker. "We've scanned all the way to the apparent origin of the beam without finding anything. The beam appears to be originating from an unknown source located approximately 300,000 kilometers distant."

"Damn it, that's not possible!" Stricklen angrily shot back. "At that range our Hess instruments should be able to detect any cloaked ship. Launch a probe straight down that beam and send me a data feed."

Moments later, a probe was launched in the direction of the tractor beam's origin. The probe rode inside the beam at it raced away from the ship. Stricklen watched the data feed from the probe as it sped away.

"Sir, engine core temperature at 600 degrees and rising," the helm reported a few minutes later. "We seem to be having no effect on the tractor beam. Our velocity is now 53 KPS star relative."

"Very well, back off to 115% and hold there. Engineering, how are the reactors holding up?"

"Doing good," Skip reported. "We have a balanced load so all the reactors are sharing the burden. We can handle this for as long as necessary."

Five agonizing minutes went by as the Komodo Dragon fought a losing battle against the tractor beam. Ken continued to watch the data feed from the probe. Suddenly, near the suspected source of the beam, the probe's signal abruptly ended. Doug announced. "Contact lost. No target identified."

Stricklen sat back in his seat and stared disbelievingly at the now blank screen which moments before had carried the probe's data feed. What he had just witnessed was impossible. The only conclusion which could be drawn was that the source of the tractor beam was a ship capable of hiding itself from even the advanced Hess sensors.