Jesse's Starship (11 page)

“I have no idea; it takes years to learn the system well enough to do that?”

“Something is happening on that vessel. Is this species superior to us?”

“None of the ones we took demonstrated superior mental abilities.”

“Go and examine them again. If that being learns the weapon system on that vessel, it could mean great trouble. Your species will be held responsible for what happens.”

“We are a full member, Chancellor.”

“If my planet is harmed by that ship, your membership will be canceled permanently; do you understand?” Hetzel nodded and the huge being sitting next to him left the room. How did that being learn the communication system in such a short time? He shook his head and left for the prison moon in a distant galaxy. This was now getting out of hand. Something had to be done, and quickly.

• • •

“I’ve found it, Chief.” The Seal began digging in the sand with his hands and a foot under the surface he managed to hit the top of a box.

“Good job, Tom. Jeff, bring that broken shovel over here.” Jeff ran over and used the shovel blade to pull the sand off the top of the ten foot long metal box. It was heavy going due to the surrounding sand falling in as they shoveled it out.

Tilly sighed, “You’re going to have to dig a trench around the sides of the box. Dig down about three feet and that will allow the sand coming in to have a place to go.”

The three Seals looked at her, “I’ve had to do this before with our well’s pipe. You’re wasting time doing it this way.” They continued to stare at her and she shook her head, “I know it’s not going to be easy. We need to wait until the sun gets low on the horizon and do this when it’s not so hot. We’ll dehydrate if we try to do it now.”

Jim shook his head and looked at Tom and Jeff, “You heard the lady; take a break and get out of the sun.” The two Seals left to get under the lean to they had made from the remnant of one of the blasted building’s walls. Tilly watched them walk away and said, “What are you trying to do?”

“This box controls the pump to the water tank buried about ten feet underground. We’ll never make it across a hundred miles of desert.”

“Did you tell your Commander where we were located?”

“No, I decided we needed to get out of the building first and then I would contact him with our location.”

“My husband is a genius with the use of satellites; he’ll find us.”

Jim stared at Tilly and she said, “What?”

“The satellite phone doesn’t show a signal. Our GPS has also been unable to track a satellite. My channel could have been removed and that would prevent me from contacting my Commander but it would be impossible to lose satellite connection. I’ve had that phone with me during many missions and it never lost connection with the communication satellites; it’s a military grade device.”

“What are you saying?”

“If it was just the phone, I’d have to believe it had failed; however, all three GPS devices we have here cannot find a satellite signal. That means one of two things.”

“What?”

“All four devices failed simultaneously.”

Tilly stared at Jim, “That is highly unlikely.”

“Every satellite has been disabled.” Tilly felt a chill in the desert heat. Jim saw her reaction and said, “My commander told me before he sent me on this mission that some members of my unit were training on going up in a shuttle to attack something in space.” Jim looked up, “I’m beginning to think that something has knocked out all of our satellites.” He looked at Tilly, “There is a possibility your husband doesn’t have any satellites to use to find us.”

“Chief, he will find us.”

“You sound pretty certain about that.”

“I know him; he will find a way.”

Jim looked out at the heat waves rising in the distance and blew out a breath, “I really hope you’re right.” Tilly turned to go to the make shift shelter and hoped the same thing.

“P
eter, how many modules are there in the instruction module?”

“A hundred and fifty seven.”

“Are all of them the same size?”

“No, the communications, navigation, and defense modules are the largest.”

“Which is the largest?”

“The navigation module.”

“You’ve seen my brain; am I capable of holding all that information?”

“I don’t know.”

Elle looked at Jess, “What are you doing?”

“We may have to split up the modules and you learn some of them and I learn the largest.”

“I don’t want to lose you, Jess. I can’t do this alone.”

“Elle, we’re in way over our head. You realize that, don’t you?” Elle shook her head and then nodded. “The only chance we have is to learn everything about this ship so we know how to use it to the fullest extent of its capabilities.” Jess went to his chair and said, “Put the chair in the reclined position, Pete.”

The chair reclined and Jess looked at Elle, “We have to do it.” Elle nodded and Jess said, “Pete, send me the navigation module.” Jess’ eyes closed and he twitched as the information was sent. Elle put her hand on his forehead and prayed he would come out of the process undamaged.

Twenty minutes later Jess’ eyes opened and he reached up and rubbed his head, “Oh that hurt.”

Elle rushed over and bent down and hugged him, “Are you ok?”

Jess groaned and said, “Yes, I think so. Pete, move my chair to a normal position.”

The chair moved to a sitting position and Jess grabbed his head.

“What’s wrong!?!”

“I have a touch of vertigo. Give me a moment.” Jess closed his eyes and after a moment the room stopped spinning. “Pete, were you able to determine anything about my storage capability?”

“Remarkably, most of the navigation data was stored in a very small area of your brain. See if you have access to it.”

Jess thought for a moment and said, “How are the former occupants able to learn all of this material?”

“They only learn the mechanics of issuing commands for me to do the task of taking the ship to a desired location. None of them have learned more than a tenth of all the information in the modules.”

Jess smiled, “I know where our families might be.”

“You do!”

“I think so; I don’t feel any different and I suspect I can take the defense module. However, I need some time to get this organized. You should start learning some of the other modules.”

Elle went to her chair and took a deep breath, “What module do you think I should take first, Pete?”

“Power management is the largest of the ones remaining. I’m assuming that the controller will want the defense module.”

Jess said, “Pete, the controller will be called Jess from this moment forward and the other occupant will be called Elle.”

“Directive acknowledged.”

Elle looked at Jess and smiled, “That is a good suggestion.” Jess nodded and Elle looked up, “Send me the power management module.” Elle closed her eyes and Jess stared at her. He admired her for how she had managed to keep control in a very dangerous environment. She didn’t lack for bravery. He felt small; she was a brilliant college student and he was a high school dropout. He shook his head and put his hand on hers as he waited for the transfer to complete. In five minutes she opened her eyes and slowly shook her head, “That system is amazing.”

“In what way?”

Elle looked up, “Pete, why do you limit yourself to the collection of photons to power your systems?”

“My operational instructions dictate what is used.”

“Why have you not collected dark energy to power your systems?”

There was a long pause and Elle said, “Pete?”

“I don’t believe that has ever been considered as a source of power.”

“I see you have the capability to detect it.”

“I do.”

“What would happen if you used your collectors to bring some into your management delivery system?”

“I have no way of determining what would happen.”

“What are you talking about, Elle?”

“Jess, this ship can use almost any form of energy to power it. It goes close to a star to collect energy to power all of its systems. I’ve learned that dark energy is rare but it appears to contain more energy than normal energy. It is also a repulsive force instead of attractive.”

“I thought that was the property of dark matter, not energy.” Elle stared at Jess and he shrugged, “I’ve read the books, too.”

Elle giggled, “Who said a college education was necessary?” She looked up, “Pete, you’re also able to convert matter to energy, right?”

“I can.”

“Could you collect dark matter and convert it to dark energy?”

“I have no way of knowing.”

“Surely you have an idea on what would happen?”

“If you picked a plant growing in the desert and consumed it, would you know what effect it would have on you?”

Elle thought for a moment, “You make a good point. What if you collected a small amount and ran it through the converter and routed it out of the exhaust system?”

“That should determine if it is usable with little danger to the major systems.”

Jess said, “Where are we going to find dark matter? Pete, do you know where to go to collect some?”

“I can detect it if I’m close but I don’t have any location in my databanks that has a large enough concentration of it to collect enough to perform the experiment.”

“I know where there is a huge concentration of it in a giant galaxy cluster.”

“Where?”

“I don’t know how to tell you. I know where the Hubble Space Telescope saw it but I have no way of determining the location from here. It’s named Abell 1689 and has 160,000 clusters of galaxies inside it. The galaxy clusters near the core are bound by dense concentrations of dark matter.”

Jess thought for a moment and remembered seeing the NASA release of the photographs of the giant clusters, “I know where it is.” Elle jerked her eyes to Jess. “That giant is in the star maps Pete gave me during the navigation module. Pete, take us there.”

“I have two Q ships coming in; I’m moving away before they can get close enough to follow my field.” Jess looked out of the viewport and saw two bright white beams moving slowly toward them.

“Why are they moving so slow?”

“I’m moving faster than the beams. You need to get in your chairs and buckle in.” Jess and Elle ran to their chairs and buckled in. They watched the hologram and saw the two ships appear and fire again. One of the beams hit and the ship was rocked. The second beam went by underneath them. The light outside the viewport started flickering and then stopped.

Elle looked up, “Have you stopped moving?”

“No! I’m in intergalactic space between galaxies and increasing my moves; hang on.” The ship turned hard right and two more beams were left behind. “I’m going close to an O type sun, I’m dimming the viewport.” The viewport turned dark but they could see the giant star approaching at an incredible speed. The ship went around it and moved away that so fast that it was hard to see what was happening. Suddenly the ship stopped and turned off its field. Two flickers flashed and were then gone.

“What did you do Pete?”

“They can’t track me through a star that big. I took a random path and turned off my my field. Those two flashes were them as they went by us.”

Suddenly the field came back on the ship moved to a different galaxy. “I’m going to stay here for a while and wait to see if I lost them.”

“Pete, can you take us to the cluster of galaxies.”

The light outside the viewport flickered and the light coming in the viewport changed as the bridge was flooded by bright light. Elle said, “The viewport will adjust automatically to a level we can tolerate. Pete, do you sense any dark matter?”

“There is a tremendous amount of it a million light years further into the core.”

“Is it safe to go there?”

“We don’t need to find out. I’ll go in far enough to take a sample and stay away from the core.”

Jess thought for a moment and a holograph appeared with the hundreds of thousands of galaxies shown in one image. The image changed when the ship jumped in closer and the galaxies grew brighter in the holograph. Elle reached over and took Jess’ hand in hers, “This makes all of this worth it. Thank you.” Jess squeezed her hand and continued to hold it. They felt the ship jerk and they released each other’s hand and grabbed the chair, “Pete, what happened?”

“I converted a small amount of dark matter into energy and sent it out the exhaust. The exhaust was so powerful it shoved the ship.”

Elle’s eyes went wide, “Pete, is it too powerful to use?”

“I don’t think so; I’ll just have to use it in smaller amounts than normal. You were right about it being more powerful than normal matter.”

Jess’ eyes narrowed, “Does this affect your power delivery systems?”

“I believe it will have an impact!”

Jess went over to the chair and leaned back, the chair went to a reclining position and Jess looked at Elle, “Before we decide to use this as an energy source, I have to know if the system can handle it. Pete, send me the defense module.” Jess closed his eyes and Elle took his left hand in her right and felt the warmth of Jess’s touch. She stared at him and the hole in her heart didn’t feel quite so large anymore. She went to her chair and smiled, “Pete, what module do you think I should learn next?”

“Judging by the amount of food and liquids you brought on board, I think learning how to operate the synthesizing units would be next.”

“What do those do?”

“They take a sample of a food or liquid and store it for creation in the unit.”

“Are you saying you can produce the food and water we’ll need for an extended time?”

“As long as you have a sample of what you want the system to produce, yes.”

Elle shook her head and said, “Go ahead and give me as many modules as would be the same amount of information Jess took in the navigation module.”

“That would be eighty seven of the remaining modules.”

Elle sighed and leaned back. Her chair reclined and she said, “Send them to me, Pete.” Elle closed her eyes and felt the transfer begin.

• • •

Mike sat with the President and his Chief of Staff and told them what Jess said. “Do you think he’s being honest?”