Alcantaran 1: Alien Abduction (26 page)

Ron flipped the switches off and they headed for the other levels.
 
They checked them out and found more mysteries but nothing extraordinary.
 
This space ship definitely had led a double life.
 
The trio was burning with curiosity but they had a schedule to stick to.
 
They went to the upper cargo bay and took their space suits off.
 
They held a council of war and decided they didn't need Tik to help with the rockets so she was going back down to level 3 to see if she could find some answers in the computer.
 
Ron would get the rockets ready while Gus drained the fuel from the fliter and the robots.
 
The first thing in the morning they would take them outside to load in the pods.
 
Ron would program the rocket to launch toward the star and scoop up as much fuel as it could.

Ron and Gus worked late but they were all ready for in the morning.
 
The fuel from the fliter had actually filled two rockets so they still had some fuel left in the robots.
 
They went to the galley to fix something to eat and saw that Tik still wasn't back.
 
Both of them concentrated and said, "Tik, it's time to quit.
 
You need to come eat.
 
Leave something for tomorrow."

In just a short time Tik popped out of a panel in the galley.
 
She startled Gus so bad he dropped his drink.
 
It spilled all over the table and onto the floor.

Tik laughed and asked, "What's the matter, Big Boy?
 
Don't you like my magic lift?"

Gus tried to bluster but his curiosity got the better of him.
 
He asked, "How did you do that?
 
Did you come all the way from the lower deck?"

"Yeah, that's about the only thing I did figure out.
 
See these decorations here?
 
If you push them like this…it will take you to the lower level of the middle cargo bay.
 
Doing this will take you all the way to the bottom and this will bring you up to here," Tik gloated.

"I don't see an elevator.
 
How does it move you up and down?" Gus asked.

"It must work on gravity/anti-gravity.
 
I put a pillow off of one of the beds down there in it and watched it go to the top level.
 
I hit the buttons to bring it down.
 
Then I had to try it for myself.
 
It was quite a thrill the first time, I must say.
 
For me going down is worse than coming up.
 
Here, do you want to try it?" Tik responded eagerly.

"I don't know if it will hold my weight.
 
I think I'd rather be on the bottom floor and only go up one floor to try it the first time.
 
Or better yet, find something that weighs as much as I do and try it," Gus hedged.

Ron laughed, "Yeah, we don't need to have Gus break legs or arms or worse right now.
 
He has to help with the rockets.
 
Not to change the subject, but did you say you didn't get anything out of the computer?"

"I tried everything I could and all I got was what I can get right here.
 
I'll use my mini-computer tomorrow to see if I can do better.
 
Look, when this panel closes, you can't even tell that it's an elevator.
 
I wonder how many other secret panels this ship has.
 
Maybe we'll even find an Alcantaran hiding in the walls," Tik ended in a mysterious whisper.

They talked for just a short while and then decided to turn in.
 
Ron tossed and turned because his shoulders were aching from all the strain of using the space suit the past two days and then the moving of the rockets to make sure the valves were in the right position.
 
His 62 years were catching up with him.
 
Thirty-five years ago, this would have been nothing.
 
Even twenty years ago he wouldn't have felt this bad.
 
He debated about checking with the healer to see if it could do something.
 
Suddenly, he remembered what
Kota
had said about the bracelet in the storeroom.
 
Maybe it would do something.
 
He quietly got up and slipped out of the room.
 
He went to the storeroom and got the bracelet.
 
He felt the familiar tingle as he put it on.
 
He closed the door and went softly back to his quarters.
 
By the time he got back in bed, he was already feeling a little better.
 
He laid down and in just a little bit, he was asleep.
 
The next morning he felt like a new man.
 
He decided he would keep wearing the bracelet.

After the group had a quick meal, Tik headed down to the main computer.
 
Ron and Gus were heading for the space suits and outside.
 
Tik reminded them to set the air lock so they wouldn't lose any air.
 
They were debating what would be the best way to get the rockets outside when Gus spotted the grav-sleds tied down on the deck.
 
He suggested that they use them to haul all the rockets in one trip.
 
He said the grav-sleds would also lift them up to the height they needed to load the rockets.
 
Ron agreed and they stacked the rockets on the grav-sled.
 
In short order, they were standing in the air lock at the big rear door.
 
After the air was pumped out, they opened the door and pushed the grav-sled outside.

Gus stopped to check on the controls for the rear tractor beam.
 
Ron forgot they were on a small asteroid with almost zero gravity.
 
Auntie had her own artificial gravity, so gravity was the last thing on Ron's mind.
 
He gave a small push to the grav-sled, leaping on as he did.
 
The grav-sled and Ron shot out the back of the space ship and headed for the shield.
 
There wasn't enough gravity to pull him down and no air for friction to slow him either.
 
He flew across the ice and ran into the shield.
 
The shield bounced him back toward the space ship at the same speed he had left the space ship.
 
Ron let out a yelp as he shot toward the shield and Gus whirled around.
 
Gus saw the problem immediately and flipped the control on his suit to magnetize his boots.
 
When Ron came bouncing back to the space ship, Gus was ready to catch the grav-sled.

Ron grinned shakily and said, "I'm glad we had the shield up.
 
I might be headed off to the far reaches of space on a grav-sled.
 
Thanks for the rescue."

"No problem, it looks like us land-lubbers have some things to learn.
 
I can see we need to talk about some of these problems any time we come outside the space ship.
 
I'll have Tik put in an automatic reminder in the computer," Gus responded with a grin.

Ron flipped his control to magnetize his boots as he stood up on the grav-sled.
 
Gus operated the tractor beam and had it grab the sled.
 
He maneuvered it to the port-side opening.
 
Ron directed him until he could see the pods and then pushed three rockets in.
 
They slid in very easily and once they were in, seemed to be locked in.
 
Gus moved him to the starboard-side and he loaded the other three rockets.
 
He and Gus returned inside the air lock where they closed the outer door and let the air pressure build.
 
As soon as they could, they entered the cargo bay and climbed out of their space suits.
 
They hung them on the rack and hurried to the flight deck.

Ron sat down at the computer console and queried the computer about the rockets status.
 
He was pleasantly surprised to see the two loaded rockets showing on the screen and the others showing that they were loaded in the pod but had no fuel.
 
He explained what he wanted and the computer plotted the burn, flight pattern and the rendezvous point.
 
Ron directed it to feed the program to one of the fueled rockets.
 
He and Gus had decided to only risk one rocket at this time.
 
If it worked and they saw the other rocket returning, they would fire the second.
 
That would cut some time off of getting fuel.
 
Then they would try to refuel the other rockets to get them sent off.

Gus worked the controls to close the shield and then lifted Auntie off the asteroid.
 
He kept hold on the asteroid with the tractor beam though.
 
Ron directed the computer to fire the rocket.
 
There was no noise or any indication that the rocket had fired until they saw the small blue blur of its engine as it blasted off for a journey to the edge of the star.
 
Ron had the computer set a clock that showed a count down for the rocket's return.
 
He also tasked the computer with using the sensors to see the rocket as soon as it came back around the star.
 
He told the computer to see if it could determine if there was fuel on-board the rocket and how much.
 
Gus set Auntie back down on the asteroid and reset the shield.

Ron and Gus were debating about the best way to get the oxygen and water into Auntie's tanks when Tik called them down to check out her discovery.
 
They headed down to the lower level and found Tik working on something from the room that contained all of the electronic equipment.

"I thought you were trying to get into the ship's computer.
 
That's the funniest looking computer that I've ever seen," Ron joshed Tik.

"Ron, can't you see the antenna?
 
It picks up her brainwaves and works just like an abacus.
 
The marbles just roll around," Gus joined in.

"Oh, you two are so funny.
 
You should be on stage; more people would have targets to throw things at.
 
I'm working on the ship's computer.
 
My mini is hooked up to it trying to break in.
 
Right now I’m multi-tasking.
 
I pulled this out and I found the refueling station in there.
 
I put just a little fuel in it and started checking it out.
 
Does anyone but me see a problem when we go behind that blue giant?" Tik rebutted their jokes.

"Well, we have a small window of time to get a lot of things done," Ron remarked.

Tik turned to Gus and waited.
 
Gus finally said, "I don't know what you see as a problem.
 
I have to agree with Ron."

"What happens if the Bugs pop back into space about where we shot them out of here?
 
We're taking a long time to get around that star because we don't want to leave a trail.
 
How long will it take the Bugs to fly around it and check it out?
 
How long would it take for us to be ready to fly out of here?
 
How would we protect ourselves?" Tik shot back at the other two.

"Yeah, I can see where it would be nice to have some advanced warning.
 
Will this thing do that?" Ron asked.

"Absolutely, Honey Child!
 
It has all sorts of detectors and it sends out a coded signal that I'll bet the Bugs can't even detect.
 
Once that rocket comes back full of fuel, we need to fuel this thing up and launch it on this side of the star.
 
I'll show you something else I found," Tik said as she headed back into the electronics room.

She picked up a small item that was about the size of a softball.
 
It looked like it had a tiny hole in it.
 
She went to a computer terminal and spoke briefly to it.
 
The small item leaped out of her hand and flew into the cargo bay.
 
It went almost to the ceiling and hovered there.
 
Tik directed their attention to the monitor.
 
They were seeing a picture of the cargo bay and all its contents.

Tik said mysteriously, "Wait here and listen."
 
She stepped into the cargo bay and moved across it.
 
Ron and Gus followed her movement on the computer monitor.
 
When Tik was on the opposite side of the bay, she whispered, "Hey, Big Boys, can you hear me?
 
How do you like my little toy now?"

Ron and Gus were flabbergasted.
 
Tik came back into the room and walked to the computer again.
 
She directed the small item to zoom in on one of the boats.
 
She waved Ron and Gus back out of the way and told the computer to project in 3-D.
 
Suddenly there appeared a small replica of the boat in the area between them.
 
The details were so crystal clear that Ron could see some kind of pack lying on the deck of the boat.
 
He didn't remember anything like that so he had to go check.
 
Sure enough there was the pack.

"Wow, my apologies, Madam," Ron said with an exaggerated bow and a wave of his hand.
 
"I can see that you have made some startling discoveries even if you didn't get into the computer.
 
How many of these things are in here and how many of the remote detectors do we have?"

Gus was watching Tik and he could see Ron's exaggerated apology kind of embarrassed her.
 
She answered, "There's about three dozen of the little remote sensors and five of the remote detectors.
 
I'm in seventh heaven checking this stuff out.
 
There are a lot of companies on my planet who would give a lot of money for these."