Scrapyard Ship (8 page)

* * *

Jason was back in his own cabin the following
afternoon. He needed another full day before he felt steady enough on his feet to move about the ship. Mollie had mothered him to distraction. In his absence, she had figured out how to use the food replicator located in the captain's kitchenette. Chicken soup seemed to stay down the best. Both Ricket and Dira had come by to check on his progress, as well as Lieutenant Perkins, who was now sitting in a chair at his bunk side. Over the past few hours Jason had come up with a basic plan and he needed to bring the lieutenant up to speed.

"First off, I need to understand Ricket’s role aboard this ship—does he have some kind of rank or position?”

"We all just refer to him as the Science Officer. Perhaps a better description is caretaker. He's pretty much the only one who knows how things work."

"How's that possible?" Jason said, exasperated. "I take it we have a qualified engineer on board?"

"Yes, that would be Horris Latimer. From what I understand he's amazing with FTL fusion drive mechanics."

"So, what's the problem?"

"Although Horris would never admit it, he's utterly confused by the propulsion system on The Lilly. It uses a totally different technology than he, or anyone else here, is familiar with."

"How about Ricket? How much does he understand?"

"Quite a bit—at least enough to keep things running."

Jason shook his head, not sure his questions were fully being answered.

"I've made a list of the section heads I'd like to meet with first thing—starting with Chief Engineer Horris, then the head of Security, followed by all the officers.”

Jason was quickly getting accustomed to his enhanced cognitive abilities. Amazed, it was as if overnight he’d acquired encyclopedic knowledge and advanced technical experience that normally would take years or even decades to possess. Now he could draw upon it at will—whatever information was required was right there, available for the asking.

First stop was engineering, situated on Deck Two. Jason left Mollie in the care of Dira, who had volunteered to show her the Zoo.

Fully nanotized, and just as Lieutenant Perkins had promised, the DeckPorts were now intuitive, or personally attuned to which floor and location Jason wished to visit.

Stepping through to Level Two, Jason easily found the section marked Engineering. He had showered, shaved and dressed in the provided captain's everyday spacer's jumpsuit—similar to those worn by the other officers. On his collar were the new captain's pins from his father. The Engineering door dematerialized as Jason entered. Engineering was a large section; some areas were open to the two decks above and below. Black gangways of some kind of composite material crisscrossed the bulkheads at various levels. Several crewmembers above him had stopped to look over the railing. Apparently visitors were uncommon in Engineering. Two men were having a heated discussion ahead of Jason. They looked up at the same time—both came to attention.

"As you were, gentlemen," Jason said, smiling, with his hand out to shake. "I'm Captain Reynolds." Jason immediately thought how strange it was that several days ago he had found it difficult to own that title, but things were different now. The men shook hands.

“I’m Chief Horris, but everyone just calls me Chief. This is Seaman Bristol.” Bristol nodded, but quickly excused himself. Jason eyed the Chief, who was a big man—his overalls tight across his large belly.

“Nice to meet you, Chief—hope I’m not interrupting anything important?” Jason queried, gesturing towards Bristol’s rapid departure.

“Not at all, sir…just not in agreement with one of the rank and file—nothing I can’t handle.”

“I don’t mean to step on your command style, Chief, but it’s not the crews’ place to argue with their superiors. That’s flat out insubordination.”

“Well… I don’t think it’s as much insubordination, as it is young stubbornness. You know how it is…”

“No, Chief, I’m sorry, but I don’t. And you’re not doing Seaman Bristol or anyone else on this ship any favors by encouraging lax conduct. When the time comes, and it will, you’ll want crewmembers who take orders, not argue with them.”

“Aye, sir—and yes, I agree. Guess we’ve let things run amuck too long around here.” Chief looked a bit sheepish. “How ‘bout I show you around Engineering. This is an incredible ship, and boy, is she fast. Of course FTL is nothing new; all the Alliance vessels travel beyond the speed of light, but The Lilly comes at it differently—not bending space around the ship, but bending space around projected multiverse versions of the ship. The admiral never fully tested the ship’s capabilities in that regard.”

Jason spent the next hour on a tour of Engineering. Chief Horris did a good job pointing out the various systems that drove the ship. Jason found he not only understood the mechanical aspects of the two large drive units, but much of the theoretical properties behind them as well. Unfortunately, his recent HyperLearning curriculum had not included anything relating to one aspect of The Lilly—specifically, her exotic drive antimatter configuration.

“I’d like to tell you we have everything figured out, but we don’t. Ricket seems to have the best theoretical mind on board, but even he has yet to figure out some of its technology. We have two antimatter drive units that don’t use standard antiprotons. The technology on The Lilly is in undiscovered territory. Fortunately, systems in Engineering don’t seem to need much in the way of maintenance. As far as I know, they’ve never gone down.”

“What if they were damaged in battle? How will you repair them?”

“That was a major concern of the admiral as well. In fact, that’s the primary reason the ship has been kept well back from space confrontations. The speed of the ship, and her phase-shift capability, have made her invaluable to the Alliance.”

“Phase- shift capabilities?” Jason asked, now totally confused.

The chief smiled, “Ah, so the HyperLearning module didn’t quite cover everything, did it? Let me put it to you this way. Did you see an exit out of this massive underground aquifer? Did you see any way to fly this ship in or out of here?”

“Um, actually no,” Jason replied, trying to remember if he saw another egress or tunnel or any other way in or out. “How the hell
did
you get it in here?”

Chief Horris smiled, enjoying the confused look on the captain’s face. “We never flew in or out of this damn cave—The Lilly can phase-shift through solid matter. Once you come to terms with how this ship utilizes the multiverse—actually piggybacking into parallel universe realities, it starts to make more sense. You’ll see these same principles used in other on-board systems as well… like the DeckPorts, drive propulsion, medical, just to name a few.”

“OK, but back to my original question. How do we repair the systems on this ship when damaged?”

“First of all, the outer hull is another exotic composite material—it’s infused with self-repairing nanites. As you’ve probably noticed everything inside and outside of this ship looks brand new. Those little buggers are constantly at work—they live to conform to their pre-programmed configuration. I don’t know what it would take to put a hole in the hull, but it would have to be something in the nature of a fusion-tipped missile. I don’t think energy weapons would have much effect on her. But again, we haven’t actually brought her into battle.”

“OK, what’s the second point? What aren’t you telling me?” Jason felt he was pulling teeth for information, that the Chief had a sense for the dramatic. He obviously was proud of the ship he served on but
come on man—get to the point
.

“We’ve been held underground for close to three weeks now. Truth is, we’re all going a bit stir crazy. But Ricket, who’s never idle, has been exploring areas of The Lilly we didn’t even know were here. In fact, there’s a whole Fifth Level, a sub-level in-between the Fourth and Fifth Levels. We call it sub-Deck 4B. Anyway, we didn’t see it hidden above the two drive units. The Level is close to thirty feet high. Within this area is one more phase-shift system—more like a phase synthesizer, of sorts. If you’re wondering where Ricket disappears to lately, it’s there—he’s trying to figure out how the hell to use this thing.”

“Well, what is it? Why would you need a phase synthesizer?” Jason asked, confused.

“To make something that does not exist on this plane of existence. We think, or Ricket thinks, that the phase synthesizer can manufacture new ship components on demand as well. So to answer your question, sir, if something gets damaged in battle, there may be the capability to replace parts instead of repairing them.”

“Thank you for your time, Chief. I’m sure I’ll have a lot more questions—but this has been very helpful. Oh, one more thing. What can you tell me about the onboard armaments?”

“Well, two things.” Jason prepared himself for more of Chief’s grandstanding. “She does indeed have weaponry, and no, they’ve never been battle tested. You’ll want to connect with our gunnery chief—Gunny Orion. She’s situated on Deck 2, forward near the bow.”

“She? A woman’s the gunny, huh?”

“Oh yeah, and I suggest, sir, you keep any ‘it’s a male-dominated-world’ inference out of your tone when you meet with her. She’s a Marine and not one who’s accepted gender-based limitations. Although she looks human, she’s actually from Tarkin—a planet situated close to where the admiral is now. She was quite famous there—some sort of sports figure from what I’ve heard.”

Chapter 5

En route to see Gunny Orion, and near the far end of the ship, Jason was pinged—a soft, almost melodic sound indicated there was an incoming message from Lieutenant Perkins. Only the message was via his recently acquired nano-implants. Jason’s brow furrowed. Why hadn’t he been informed on how these damn implants work? Then, answering his own question, he realized he already knew the answer. It was another skill given him via his strenuous HyperLearning treatment.

“Go for Captain,” he said aloud.

“Captain, sorry to disturb you, but we have a situation. Um, well…”

“What is it, Lieutenant? It can’t be that bad. Tell me.” Jason was feeling more at ease in his new role as commander. But somehow he needed the ship’s crew to act like a competent military contingent, not old granny's knitting circle.

“It’s your daughter, sir. Can you port over to Deck 3, designation E25? She seems to have—well, there’s an emergency situation. Can you come right away, sir?”

“Absolutely. Is she OK? What’s going on, Perkins? Has she been injured again?” Jason was already running toward the closest DeckPort. He knew exactly where Deck 3, E25 was located; not from the HyperLearning ordeal as much as from Mollie’s virtual game. That was the ship’s designation for the Zoo—which he still wasn’t clear on.

* * *

Jason sped out of the DeckPort at a full run, nearly toppling over another crewmember in the hallway. He felt guilty he hadn’t spent enough time with Mollie as it was. She’d already had a near fatal, actually totally fatal, mishap. What kind of danger was she in? Jason’s mind raced. Perhaps he’d have to talk to someone in Security about getting a side arm. Apparently things were more dangerous here than he’d realized. He sprinted down two more corridors and made a sharp right toward the entrance of the Zoo.

The door dematerialized—Jason rushed in and quickly surveyed his surroundings. The room was huge; in fact, it didn’t make sense. The area seemed bigger, more expansive than the ship itself. Jason’s first impression was that it was some kind of optical illusion. But that didn’t translate to what he was seeing. There were numerous large enclosures—each one a separate natural environment. Some were desolate and rocky with high-up cliff protrusions that jutted out at near horizontal angles. Others were lush, forest-like areas, and another that was totally aquatic, with light green steam billowing into the air—the water seemingly suspended—nothing there, no glass, nothing to contain its liquid contents. As phenomenal as these observations were, they paled in comparison to what Jason was now seeing.

Each enclosure held one or more large animals—if
animal
was even the right terminology. Strange species, alien species, as they moved about here and there within their confined spaces. Suddenly, a man-sized worm organism jumped from the aquatic liquid into the air—then, at the apex of its jump, it seemed to hover and then spun its body 180 degrees—revealing two eyes, a nose and a mouth. A mouth that was smiling. As quickly as it appeared, it was back below the surface. Jason’s heart nearly leapt from his chest as a loud trumpet-like sound blared right behind him. Startled, he lost his balance and fell on his backside. Ready to run if necessary, he spun around on his butt and saw a full-grown, 11-foot tall Indian elephant.

“Hi Dad!” Mollie yelled down from her perch near the animal’s massive head. “This is Raja. Raja, this is Dad.” Mollie gave Raja a loving pat and giggled. Then Jason noticed Dira, a wide smile across her face, standing to the right of the elephant’s thick front legs. Lieutenant Perkins, also smiling, was leaning against the bulkhead by the Zoo entrance.

“What the hell! You scared the living daylights out of me. Whose idea was this, anyway?” Jason blurted out, having a hard time keeping the smile off his own face.

“It was Dira’s,” Mollie said, with unabashed laughter. She said you’re too serious all the time and it would be good for you.”

“Did she now?” Jason retorted, seeing Dira with a hand over her mouth laughing uncontrollably. Jason looked up at his daughter—beaming and obviously proud of herself. He spun around on his heels and took in his incredible surroundings. Strange sounds and smells filled the air. Nearby, what looked to be a saber-toothed tiger emerged from a cave—its expression seemed bored by all the commotion.

“How on earth is all this possible?” Jason inquired, looking over at the lieutenant.

Lieutenant Perkins walked over and extended a hand to help him off the ground, which Jason accepted. “More phase-shift technology. Very little of this compartment is actually onboard the ship itself. The combined Zoo enclosures are many square miles in circumference. Like DeckPorts, when you enter the various habitats, you’re actually moving across to a separate, albeit connected, piggybacked reality of the multiverse. That’s according to Ricket anyway. I don’t pretend to understand it all. Here, watch this.” Perkins walked to a nearby control panel, looked back at Jason and then pressed a key. The thirty or so habitat enclosures all rotated around like a large carousel until they were replaced by a new, completely different set of environments and animals. “There are multiple different sets—cool, huh?” Perkins said, resetting the enclosures to the original configuration. Just then, an older man with a long gray beard and dirty green overalls walked up. He carried an old wooden stepladder over his shoulder and was now positioning it near the front of the elephant.