Ancient Birthright (28 page)

The three girls pulled into a tight semicircle, crowding Iosif and demonstrating just how vulnerable he was.

Iosif closed his eyes and pushed his head back to put as much distance as he could between them. “We’ve known there was a manned ship in this sector of space for years. From the increasing strength of its radio signals, we knew it was getting closer to Earth. The transmissions from the alien craft are timed, so they arrived at Earth whenever North America was facing this sector. We had to assume they were talking to the Americans. We couldn’t let them get sole access to advanced technology. The decision was made to send a mission to intercept the ship before it reached Earth. I was to make contact and establish communications between our peoples. If that could not be done, I had orders to destroy the alien ship.”

Shocked, the three teens looked at each other. “What was to be our fate?” Anika asked.

Iosif did not answer and looked everywhere but into their eyes.

Katya pulled herself forward, so her nose was almost touching Iosif’s. “To destroy the alien ship you would need a very large explosive, something with the power of a nuclear warhead. Is this craft rigged with such a weapon?” she took Iosif’s silence as confirmation.

Anika gently pulled Katya back. “Is the weapon in the crew portion of
Nauka 7
?”

Iosif’s eyes flicked to the rear bulkhead before he locked them on a point directly over Katya’s shoulder.

Chapter-31

The crew cabin was in shambles, equipment hung by wires. Locker contents floated everywhere, padding unscrewed from bulkheads and equipment racks drifted in the air currents. “That’s the last place they could have planted an explosive. Unless they replaced a common item with an explosive replica, there’s nothing,” Rishly told the crew. “I’ve searched the command deck and opened everything that was accessible. Hooker’s men wouldn’t have had time to get very creative in here. There are test teams in the ship constantly during the last two weeks before launch.”

“Let’s put the ship back together and brainstorm other likely locations.” Striker grabbed a jump suit with the name Cindy Dumas embroidered over the left breast pocket. He strapped it in Cindy’s locker then looked for the next item to stow.

The five worked in silence for the next ten minutes. Beldon, Cindy and Striker replaced equipment in lockers and drawers, and Rishly and Jollye carefully remounted instrument and equipment panels back in their racks.

Beldon stopped with a white bra floating from his fingertips. “How are we going to handle this? Do we call Mission Control and report what we’ve found or remain on radio and telemetry silence and let them think we’re dead?”

Striker paused for a second. “Does the Internet connection go through the NASA radio system?”

“No,” Rishly answered. “It’s linked directly into the public satellite communications system. We piggyback on existing capacity with the full knowledge of the service providers. In fact, they’re the ones who came to NASA and asked if we would accept the service free of charge. They got a lot of publicity when their system was first installed.”

Striker grabbed a handhold and turned toward Beldon. “I assume you and your dad set up some kind of secret email accounts before we launched. Could you send him an email to let your families know you’re alive, and fill them in on what’s happening? I’d like to have some record of our problems stored someplace besides
Endeavour
.”

Beldon activated the terminal and launched the Internet browser. Headlines flashing across the screen on the ISP home page reported the explosion of
Endeavour
with the loss of everyone aboard. A full-scale investigation was underway to determine what had happened to the spaceship. Multiple terrorist groups were claiming responsibility for the disaster. The President was unavailable for comment, but he would make a prepared statement when he and his family returned from vacation.

Beldon wrote the email and sent it, hoping it would provide some relief to their family’s grief. He warned his dad not to let on to their guards that the
Endeavour
was still in one piece and continuing with its mission.

Striker’s stomach growled. “Let’s eat while we brainstorm our next step.”

Everyone selected food and drink pouches then settled into comfortable positions.

“I think we need to contact the
Universe Explorer
and tell them what’s happening. We should also try contacting
Nauka 7
directly and see if anything has changed on that front,” Becca suggested.

Cindy squeezed lamb stew into her mouth and swallowed slowly. “Could we accelerate this portion of the trip? Get to
Nauka 7
faster, so we can change course. It will make it harder for someone from Earth to send a signal to any bombs still attached to
Endeavour
.”

Chapter-32

Nauka 7
: Transjump plus 5 years, 240 days:

“That’s all I know about the weapon,” Iosif insisted. “Please, I need water and food.”

“Have you gotten that radiation meter working yet?” Nadya asked Katya.

“Whoever sabotaged this thing knew what they were doing. The meter’s been wired to show a response, but it’s just the test signal from the check source on the case. The probe has been taken completely out of the circuit.” Katya and Dantee both had their hands buried in the maze of wires and connectors.

Dantee pulled a pair of wires from beneath the main printed circuit board. “This might be problem,” she said as she fished the connector to the top of the nest of wires. “This connector has two wires, one blue with white strip and other black with white strip, look on picture see if it is the one.”

“That’s it,” Katya said as she studied the schematic. “it needs to plug into socket JP34.”

Dantee had her face so close to the internal mess her nose was touching the outer wires. “Is there polarity on plug?”

“The black with white strip goes to pin one.”

“Okay, it’s in place. Kick it in the ass and see what happens,” Dantee said.

“We need to talk about some of the phrases your instructor pilot used during your training. It would be more polite and correct to say ‘turn it on and see what happens’.”

“That’s true, but you always smile when I say it the other way,” Dantee said with a little smirk.

“You are such a tease. I can’t believe how much your English has improved in the weeks you’ve been with us,” Katya told her.

“Listening to others speak the correct way is a real help. Everything we have learned on the
Universe Explorer
has been from the books that Beldon sent. Spoken is different from writing. Mom and Dad have talked with Beldon and Cindy, but the talking is only small number of words. Will you teach me more Russian cuss words? I hear some from Anika but not many. Beldon did not send books on English cuss words.”

“Anika, you need to start watching what you say around the kids. When we get to the
UE
their parents are going to wonder what kind of example we’ve set,” Katya called to Anika in the cockpit.

Anika leaned out of the pilot’s chair, careful not to send Tuuan and Reedn flying across the cabin. “I can’t help it. They just pop out sometimes.” She turned back to continue explaining the controls and pilot console instruments to the two youngsters.

“
Nauka 7
, this is
Endeavour
, do you copy?”

Anika leaned over and called into the rear cabin, “
Endeavour
is calling us on a direct link.”

“Go ahead
Endeavour
, we are reading you loud and clear.”

“
Nauka 7
, we have increased our rate of closure to thirty-five thousand miles per hour. We will begin our braking maneuver in three days and should be joining with you in five days. Is the docking station clear and functioning?”

The turnaround delay was less than fifteen seconds, so they could carry on a normal conversation.

“The docking station is currently in use by the
UE
ship. We will have it clear when you need it,
Endeavour
.”

“Good, we’ll be operating on fumes when we arrive. What is the current status of your fuel in the damaged portion of your ship?”

“Both tanks are at twenty-five percent of capacity. Video inspection shows no damage to the defueling ports.”

“We have the aluminum the
UE
ship needs as a fuel catalyst. We retained our external fuel tank, and we should have the capacity to transfer your entire remaining fuel load.”

“Copy that,
Endeavour
. We have a complication that will need resolution before we begin boosting for the
UE
. We’ve learned from our injured pilot that there is a nuclear weapon mounted in the aft section of the ship. From what he’s told us, the trigger is a manually activated timer. It should be safe to dismount the weapon and set it adrift when we leave, if we can get to it.”

“Copy,
Nauka 7
. We’ll see you in five days. Keep us informed of any changes.”

Katya and Dantee screwed the radiation monitor case back together, and then joined the others in the cockpit.

Katya held up the monitor. “I think this is working. I’m going to check out the bulkhead between the crew compartment and the aft section.” She pushed off, sailed back through the hatch, switched on the radiation monitor’s power switch, then moved the probe slowly over the bulging aluminum. Katya stopped at periodic intervals and made notations in black marker directly on the bulkhead. Two-thirds of the way to the lower left-hand corner she stopped and took additional readings. The numbers written on the wall were now closer together and obviously much larger. She finished the survey and stowed the instrument in its clip.

“I think I found the reason that section of rivets started cracking the wall plating.
I believe the rivets were added to mount the weapon. The collision must have damaged the weapon casing. At this point,” Katya circled the area with her finger, “the readings jump significantly.

“They are one hundred-thirty times higher compared to the remainder of the bulkhead. I think the collision cracked the case and shielding. Fortunately, the nuclear materials used to make the weapon’s core is a dense solid metal, so the only radiation leaking is from the crack, much like a light beam shining through a roof with a hole in it,” Katya told them.

Nadya asked, “Won’t the radiation spread if the crack isn’t sealed?”

“No, nuclear weapons don’t contain radioactive materials in powdered form, but as a metal solid, machined to a precise shape and thickness. Forget the movie thrillers where radioactive contamination flows like water. The only way for this to spread would be by mechanical means, something scrapping it or an explosion blowing it apart. I’m going to tape our pressure suits over the area. They have a layer of lead impregnated cloth sewn into them. And it will help cut down on stray gamma radiation.”

Nadya helped Katya tape the four pressure suits to the wall over the areas with the highest radiation readings.

“As a precaution, I think our guests should return to their ship and back it off a few hundred feet. Radiation is not good for rapidly dividing cells like those found in developing young bodies. The levels in here are low enough I don’t think they have received any permanent damage. But prolonged exposure would not be good,” Nadya said.

“I’ll get instrument and check,” Tuuan said as she floated into the open airlock. They had long ago figured out how to bypass the airlock door interlocks so that both doors could be left open on both ships. This created a direct access route into the PTO. Tuuan returned with a small handheld device that she activated and carried around the cabin.

When she finished, she held out the instrument. “No problem. It’s safe. The radiation levels are below those normally found in living areas of
Universe Explorer
.”

Katya took the instrument from Tuuan and examined the screen. “What are all these bars indicating?”

Dantee floated forward and hovered by Katya’s shoulder. “Different areas of energy spectrum from radio waves, to light, to radiation, from what you call alpha and beta particles, gamma rays, neutrons, and the rest of the sub atomic spectrum. Select which portion of the spectrum you want to see by pressing here.”

“You had this little beauty available, and yet you spent hours helping me trouble shoot that antique,” Katya waved to the radiation monitor clipped to the wall.

“It was fun. I learned a lot about how you make things and draw plans to show how it makes to work, the schematic drawing,” Dantee told her.

“Made to work...shows how it’s made to work,” Katya corrected automatically while she switched through the display selections on the little instrument. “This instrument feels almost organic,” she handed it to Anika. “It feels more like a plant than a manufactured machine.”

“Our scientists make most stuff in bio-lab. They make it so it is self-repairing and so we can grow more,” Dantee told the group. She took the spectrum analyzer back and showed them a bump on the back of the unit. “This is a bud. If I remove it and put it in a nutrient solution, I get another instrument in maturity time. You would like to see this?”

Katya answered for the three Russian girls. “Yes, very much. You can actually grow new instruments in the field without specialized systems?”

“Some stuff, yes,” Dantee answered. “Reedn, please get container with nutrient?”

Reedn pushed off Anika’s shoulder and headed for the airlock. They heard a grunt and some scrapping then silence and another grunt before he returned with a closed container holding a reddish brown syrup inside. “The airlock’s shrinking, I have to wiggle to get through it.”

Tuuan laughed. “It’s more likely the mouth that never quits eating is getting too fat to fit through.”

“Who you calling fat?” And the chase was on.

Anika’s face split into a smile as she watched the zero gee version of ‘take-that-back’. “I guess kids are kids in every species.”

Dantee carefully pried the lid off the container, and then popped the bud off the back of the spectrum analyzer and pressed it into the gel. She handed the container to Katya. “This is for you. Watch each day and see changes. When it’s mature, we will need to take it to our ship so it continues to live. It will need to attach to ship for food.”