Ancient Birthright (43 page)

“All four pilots have been practicing for weeks to ensure they can control the PTOs in a coordinated fashion to land the pod and the two ships as a single unit,” Saigg explained.

“I get the feeling from your pacing and color that you might have some doubts about taking the kids?”

“Not really doubts. I’m just worried that we are asking too much of them. They’ve done more in their short lives than most other members of the
UE
’s crew have even imagined,” Saigg said.

“Saigg, can you envision those three being forced to live the lives of normal luzzon children? Going to school every day and being forced to sit through classes on topics they know more about than their instructors. You just told me yourself that they are the best pilots we have. If there’s one thing I’ve learned as Prime of this ship, it’s that you use the resources available to the fullest extent possible to accomplish the mission.”

“You’re right. I think Dantee would have found a way to come on this mission with or without my permission.” Saigg stopped pacing and took his seat at the conference table.

“What are your feelings, Beldon?” asked Command Prime.

“I hate the thought of leaving Cindy and Soleene, but I know they are with friends and will have all the help they need. I’m excited to discover how the Moon base fared after all these years, especially if historical records do exist on what transpired on Earth during that time. It has been months since I heard any news of my family on Earth. Just the thought of getting to communicate with them again makes me want to launch this mission today.”

“Who else among the humans have you selected for your expeditionary team?”

Saigg looked at Beldon then proceeded to answer. “Colonel Striker insisted he needed to go in case we have to communicate with the U.S. military and Anika and Katya volunteered to come and deal with the Russians if necessary.”

Beldon added, “I believe their training in integrated systems could be very helpful. It will give us another point of view if the casroo engineers have problems figuring out the equipment. Becca wanted to come, but knew it wasn’t feasible with the baby, and Nadya has just started an intensive course of study under Marra’s guidance.”

Saigg resumed his report. “The remainder of the crew will be the four pilots, six casroo engineers, Department Lead Remoo for recycle systems, three communication system engineers, and two historians with training in databud information retrieval. I will alert them of our planned departure as soon as we’re finished with this meeting. We should be able to get all the equipment loaded by late tomorrow and leave sometime next cycle.”

“Very well, keep me informed if you have any additional requirements, or you encounter problems meeting your schedule.”

Saigg stood and nodded to Beldon that it was time to leave and start notifying their crewmembers.

Chapter-55

“Okay General, fill me in on the status of the Airborne Laser System,” the President said as he waved General McAlister to a chair.

“Mr. President, the latest tests were completely successful. As you know, the ALS uses the Boeing 747 as its airborne platform. The intercept crew locked on to three targets at the same time and destroyed two of them before the laser’s fuel was expended.” A satisfied smile lit the general’s face.

“What’s the range of the beam?”

“The range is limited to eight-hundred miles in the atmosphere due to scatter. It’s only limited by beam spread once the light gets into the vacuum of space so if the focusing lens was large enough to collimate a tight beam, we could burn a hole in Mars.”

“What if the system was tied into a ground based power source. How long could it be fired?”

“With unlimited power, we could fire it in pulse mode for as long as the light pump could be kept within its operating temperature range.”

“If it was land-based and aimed at something as far away as Mars, could the object be destroyed?”

“That would depend on what the object was made of and how long we could train the laser on the target. But, if it were something like a missile or satellite, then I would have to answer a qualified yes.”

“Where would you suggest we mount the system?”

“A mountain top in a dry climate would be best. One of the locations used for terrestrial telescopes.” McAlister said.

“Do it.”

“You mean install the laser as a land-based weapons system? Why?”

“Yes, and I want it done as soon as you can, General. We’re going hunting.”

“Hunting? What are we going to shoot?” General McAlister asked with a dumb founded expression. “If we install the ALS in a stationary ground installation, it will be basically useless for stopping ICBMs and could only be used to take out satellites or space craft.”

“Now you’re getting the picture, General.” The President chuckled.

The general’s jaw dropped and his eyes widened. “You want to use it on the alien spaceship.”

“That ship is the biggest threat to this country since the cold war.”

“I’ll get right on it, Mr. President.”

“How long will it take?”

“It should be operational in about two months.”

“I want daily reports on your progress,” the President said rapping his desk with his knuckles as he stood and leaned toward General McAlister.

“Of course, sir.” McAlister cleared his throat and stood, edging toward the door.

“Move it, General. Make it happen.” He all but shoved McAlister out the door of his office.

Chapter-56

Earth’s Moon: Transjump plus 7 years, 221 days:

Saigg pulled Dantee into a hug. “Well little one, are you ready to do this?”

“I’m so ready, Dad. One more day with nothing to do and I’m going to tie Reedn’s dorsal spines in knots just for the excitement.”

The pair was floating among the stowed equipment in the load-pod. Saigg had been checking the tie-down straps to ensure everything was ready for their Moon landing, when Dantee had drifted by looking bored and out of sorts.

“I know this trip lacks excitement, but they can’t all be rescue missions where you get to meet new friends.”

“I know, I just wish we were there and exploring the base.”

“You only have to wait a few more hours. Then you can...,” Saigg paused as Reedn sailed into range and joined the group hug.

“Are we there yet?” He’d been asking the age-old question since he’d gotten out of his sleeping restraint.

“You can see the navigation screen as well as the rest of us,” Dantee said with exasperation.

“I know. It’s just fun to drive you up the wall. Tuuan sent me to find you guys and let you know she needs to make a slight course correction, so you need to hang on to something.”

Saigg reached out a hand and anchored the group to one of the hold-down straps while his tail curled around another a few feet away. The load-pod shifted and set the restrained equipment to alternately bouncing off the sidewalls and rebounding from the tie-downs.

”I better see what’s going on,” Dantee said. “Reedn, why don’t you stay here with Dad and drive him crazy for a while.” She pushed off with an expertise gained from two extended missions spent in zero gee. With a flick of her tail to a strap, she turned ninety degrees and sailed through the open airlock.

“You kids are pretty good at the zero-gee maneuvering,” Saigg said.

“We had to get good at it on the
Endeavour
. Otherwise, we would have spent all of our time bouncing off humans. Sometimes, I would crawl into the PTO just to be alone for a few hours,” Reedn told his dad.

“How are the ‘Common’ language lessons coming? Have the humans learned our language during the past several weeks?” Saigg asked his son, whom he’d appointed to teach the humans the language used on the
Universe Explorer
.

“They’re pretty good at picking out common words and symbols, so they shouldn’t have too many problems finding their way around the Moon base if there are signs they can look at. Their pronunciation is terrible. I have to listen to what they’re saying several times to make out what they mean. It’s a good thing we learned English, or we’d still be using hand signals.”

An hour later the intercom system came to life. “Crew, please return to your assigned seats and prepare for maneuvers. We will begin our braking burn in ten minutes and should be on the surface in less than two hours. Reedn, report to your sensor console,” Dantee commanded.

Saigg strapped into his designated positon next to Beldon. They were located behind the sensor control station and the engineering consoles. This gave them a clear view of the VH screens displaying the external video pickups. The view from the video sensors in the nose of each of the two spacecraft, displayed the moon’s surface. The area centered in the screen was artificially flat with very few rocks or impact depressions. To one side a deep crater wall, jagged, with fissures and tumbled rock slid by as they descended.

Several hundred feet away the crater wall smoothed as the two PTO’s with the load pod mounted between them approached the ancient landing zone.

Dantee called, “My main engine power is fluctuating. Using side thrusters to stabilize descent angle. Tuuan, increase your main engine output. We’ll do this as a single engine landing. Hold on folks the ride might be a little wild.”

Saigg watched the engineering display, and saw Dantee and Tuuan shift to a single main engine configuration. The imbalanced thrust tried to pinwheel the joined ships. Dantee compensated by using her nose maneuvering thrusters to counteract the spin.

“Touchdown in fifty, forty…ten.” Reedn stopped calling the distance as the craft hovered and rocked.

Dantee’s hands flew across the controls as she held the ship upright. The craft with Tuuan at the controls touched down first, followed a second later by Dantee’s side of the ship.

“Dantee, you have a bent landing strut on your ship. I’d recommend laying us over as soon as you can.” Reedn reported.

The two PTOs with the load-pod mounted between them were resting on their tail struts, the girls used the maneuvering rockets to tip the PTOs and ease them down to a stable position on their sides. This put the airlock in the tail of the load-pod just a couple of feet above the Moon’s surface. Six adjustable legs extended from the sides of the PTOs, so the ships did not rest directly on the rocks of the Moon’s surface.

Saigg unstrapped and joined Beldon at the video sensor controls as he panned the camera over a vertical wall of rock. “The entrance area looks to be intact,” Saigg said. “The main hanger bay doors are closed but the smaller vehicle door is wide open. They may have vented the atmosphere when they left. If they did, it would stop all metal oxidation, but it would kill the organic machines.” Saigg moved toward the airlock. “Let’s get suited up, and see what it looks like inside. Take as many battery-powered stand lights as you can.”

The three young luzzons, four humans, Saigg and three of the casroo engineers cycled through the load-pod airlock and walked to the open installation vehicle door.

Dantee setup one of the two lights she carried in the airlock and switched it on. The metal of the lock doors gleamed as bright as it had on the day it was machined. The massive door was twelve feet high and ten feet wide with tapered sides that fit the doorframe like a plug when the airlock was pressurized.

Reedn scampered through the inner door and turned on one of his lights. A low whistle came over the speakers in the helmets of the teams pressure suits. “You guys have got to see this.”

His light only penetrated a hundred feet before dimming in the vastness of the hanger bay. Rows of vehicles sat in lines, as if waiting for the workday to begin. Some were obviously designed as haulers and tractors to be used in vacuum while others were open and must have been used within the pressurized portion of the base.

One of the casroo engineers climbed in the closest tractor, one designed for vacuum, and tried the switches.

“Dead power source,” he called through his helmet radio.”

Another engineer opened a side panel on the tractor and pulled out a cube that was about ten inches on a side. He detached a battery from one of the lights he carried and modified the contacts to match those of the dead battery. With a little wiggling and a push, it slid into place in the battery compartment.

“Give it another try,” he called.

A low whine came from inside the tractor, transmitted through the floor and into their boot soles. The tractor’s exterior headlights came on illuminating the polished floor for nearly a quarter of a mile before striking the far wall.

“It looks like it’s in working order, but the hydrogen tank is almost empty. We’ll have to get the fusion reactor back on line to generate hydrogen before this one will go very far.”

The second engineer pulled out his makeshift battery from the tractor and pushed the original back into position. The tractor continued to run.

“Looks good. The battery is taking a charge. I’ll leave it running. That way we can use this battery to start other vehicles,” the engineer in the cab reported as he climbed down.

The third casroo engineer moved to one of the vehicles designed for interior use. “This one is battery-powered.” He used the same battery modification to power it up. We won’t get very far on these lamp batteries, but we might have enough power to make it to the main reactor.”

The electric vehicles were a low-slung open framework with four wheels and four seats. There was a small cargo area in the rear.

The other two engineers climbed in to the open seats, and the vehicle moved silently away into the darkness. One of the engineers on the vehicle switched on a lamp to light the way. In the distance, Saigg could see the vehicle stop every few minutes to setup a light.

The tractor the engineer had started was a bright blue high-wheeled tracked vehicle with a clear domed area for the operator. It had attachment points on the front and rear that were obviously for connecting trailers or wheeled equipment.