Atlantis Rising (10 page)

‘Exit vector plotted…Launching in
5…4…3…2…1…Launch’ the voice said. ‘Rigging for atmospheric flight…’

“Sir, we’re moving,” Carla said.

“Huh,” Jon said. He looked over
at the screen Prasuh had been on just moments before. Now it showed water. You
could just barely make out the ocean floor as it passed by. Then suddenly there
was blue sky.

“What the hell is going on?
Someone get me some answers,” Jon said.

“Spaceship?” Bill said.

“You mean that base was a dock
for a spaceship?” Jon said.

A large explosion erupted behind
them as the base exploded. Then bolts started raining around them while the
ship started taking evasive maneuvers.

“I think I have some of this
figured out,” Tactical reported.

“Well, what are you waiting for?
Shoot back, already,” Jon said.

“Charging weapons, now,” Tactical
said.

Suddenly an explosion rocked the
ship hard. It tossed Jon and Bill to the floor.

“What the hell…” Jon started.

‘Weapons systems offline…
Explosion on deck four section twenty-two… Fire suppression system online…
Repair drones en route,’ the computer said.

The ship turned nose up towards
space, as it weaved through the incoming fire.

“Center on ship,” Jon said to the
mapping table.

The table shifted view to show
the ship as it weaved through the sky. The ship was incomplete, all over the
hull you could see where they still had work to do. The readings showed her as
being 98% complete.

A bolt hit her on the nose and no
one felt even a slight
shudder inside
the
ship.

‘Shields at 50%...Inertial
Stabilizers at 45%.’ the computer said.

Jon watched as the ship entered
space, passing between Prasuh's battleship and one of the cruisers, while she
picked up speed.

‘Fold point in fifteen seconds.’
the computer said.

Another beam found its mark as
all of the Invaru ships took up the pursuit.

‘Shields at 35%...Inertial
Stabilizers at 20%.’ the computer said.

“Are we going to out run them?”
Jon asked. The Invaru ships were actually falling behind.

“Looks like,” Bill said.
“Engineering, see if you can figure out how to get more power to the engines.”

“Um, yes, Sir,” the Ensign said.

‘Fold drive charging, five
seconds to fold.’ the computer said.

Just as the ship folded, a beam
hit her, causing an explosion. For a split second, the ass end of the ship
tilted up. Then a bright flash of light engulfed her, and she was gone.

A flash of light lit the
blackness of space as a ship appeared. The ship tumbled, obviously out of
control. Lights flickered through her windows. In her wake, a cloud of smoke
and debris followed.

ojoung’s feet left the floor as the section he was in lost
gravity. He flailed his arms as he tried to get to the door that led to Main
Engineering. When he realized he wasn’t going anywhere, he rolled his eyes and
stopped waving his arms. He looked around for something, anything, so he could
get himself in motion. He was floating in the middle of the room though, and
there was nothing within reach.

The room rotated around Oojoung,
as the ship tumbled in space. Lights flickered while the ship tried to maintain
power to the important systems. The tumble was making Oojoung sick to his
stomach.

“Too many spinnings,” Oojoung
gasped.

He closed his eyes tightly,
trying to ward off the nausea.

He heard one of the doors move
and opened his eyes a bit. On the ceiling, well maybe it was the floor he
thought, was one of the medium spider bots. It moved towards Main Engineering.
Oojoung reached over and deactivated his stealth unit. His sudden appearance
made the spider bot stop for a second, and cock one of its eyes in his
direction.

It issued a series of whistles
and beeps as it studied Oojoung.

“Oojoung need helps! You come
here! Help poor Oojoung!” Oojoung said.

Another series of beeps and
whistles, then it turned and continued towards the door it was heading to.

“NO! You help Oojoung that is
order! NOW!” Oojoung yelled.

The Spider bot stopped for a
second as it turned to Oojoung and issued a series of beeps and whistles.

“Yes, come to poor Oojoung nice
bot thingy,” Oojoung said. “You come help Oojoung, be good little bot.”

The spider bot turned away and
walked up to the door, which stayed shut. It issued a series of beeps and
whistles.

“NO! No leave poor Oojoung
floatings and sickenings. Come get Oojoung, stupid bot,” Oojoung whined.

The spider bot flipped a panel
open and reached into it with a utility arm. It turned slightly to have Oojoung
in view, as it started adjusting something.

“Uh, oh,” Oojoung said. It was
the only thing he got out before he suddenly slammed into the floor as the
spider bot restored gravity. Oojoung moaned as he tried to regain his breath.

The spider bot beeped and
whistled, again. As the door slid open, it sealed the panel closed.

“Stupid bot thingy, that hurt
Oojoung,” Oojoung moaned.

He slowly stood up and stumbled
towards the door.

“Oojoung going to deal with dumb
bot, later. Right now Oojoung has more important things to do.”

The spider bot beeped and walked
off before Oojoung could reach it.

Minutes later, Oojoung entered
Main Engineering. He gasped at the sight. Several of the consoles were
sparking, while some of them had flickering holographic screens. The catwalk on
his
level
had
fallen, and Mike was pinned by the leg in a small
pool of blood. Brad was lying against the wall, with multiple burns covering
his hands and arms, where he had shielded himself from something. The front of
his uniform had protected his chest from whatever had happened. The damage
seemed to be contained to this level, as Oojoung looked over the edge of the
catwalk at the other levels.

Oojoung turned to the main
reactor control panel; it was missing. The inside of the panel showed signs of
damage. It was then that Oojoung knew what had happened and he sighed as he
glanced back at Brad.

Oojoung turned his attention back
to the control panel, and pulled the fried circuit board from it. He dropped it
to the floor, as he lined the circuit board he had removed from his belt pouch.
He slid it back into place.

‘Main reactor circuits restored…
Reactor start up sequence initiated,’ a bland computer said.

Oojoung started over to where
Mike was pinned. One of the spider bots was working on freeing Mike and Oojoung
rushed over to it.

“NO!” Oojoung shouted. “No, free
hoomen, much bleedings if you do.” He grabbed the spider bot by the leg and
tried to pull it away. It slid back an inch and immediately tried to move back.
When nothing happened, it turned around to see what was holding it back. It
lifted the leg he was holding onto and threw an unprepared Oojoung into the
wall.

The impact caused Oojoung’s
vision to swim as he started to pass out. The spider bot looked over where the
sound came from and watched Oojoung slump to the ground.

“Stoopid bot thingies, always
hurting poor Oojou…” Oojoung muttered right before he passed out.

Terri moaned as she started to
come around. The ship’s jump had thrown her against the wall. She couldn’t feel
anything broken as she started to pick herself up off the floor. She shook her
head to clear it, as she looked around the room.

The large upper catwalk had
snapped at the midpoint and crushed the planning table. She saw an arm sticking
out from the debris and her blood ran cold. She stood up on shaky feet and
stumbled over to the arm.

“Jon!” Terri said with concern.

Terri reached down
,
moved
a piece of the debris, and almost puked, as
what was left of Ensign Dean Baker’s head came into view. She reached down,
trying to find a pulse even though she doubted she would find one. She set the
piece of debris back to cover his remains as she scanned the room.

Carla was sitting up across the
room shaking her head.

“Carla you okay?” Terri called.

“Yeah, doesn’t feel like anything
is broken,” Carla said as she started to get to her feet.

“Dean’s dead,” Terri said as she
continued to look around.

“I think Sara is, too,” Carla
said.

She approached the other side of
the collapsed catwalk and bent down.

“Yeah, she’s dead. Bill and Jon
are over here.”

Terri’s heart leaped as she ran
alongside the catwalk until she could duck under it. When she got to the other
side, relief flooded her. Jon was lying in the center of the floor, and Bill
was not far away. She saw they both looked all right, as she knelt at her brother’s
side and checked his pulse.

Jon moaned as his eyes fluttered
open.

“Thank God,” Terri said, tears
filling her eyes.

“I’m okay, Sis,” Jon said as he
sat up. Jon reached out and wiped a tear from her face. “No need for that. I’m
fine, nothing broken.”

Terri wrapped Jon in a hug, and
squeezed him as hard as she could.

“Ouch! Okay! I was okay. Now I
think I have some broken ribs,” Jon said, glancing at his sister. “No, really.
I’m fine. It’s fine.”

“It’s just I was so worried when
I couldn’t find you, and then I found Ensign Baker dead,” Terri said.

“I’m fine, really,” Jon said as
he rubbed her back.

Terri finally released him, and
they both stood up. Bill had gotten to his feet by that time, and was helping
Carla check on the rest of the Command crew.

“Looks like only two casualties
in the Bridge crew,” Bill reported.

“Bridge?” Jon said with a
questioning look.

“Well this is a starship,” Bill
said.

“I guess so,” Jon said with a
small grin. “Okay, people! Let’s see where we stand. We’ve lost Tactical and
Air/Space Control. I want those stations transferred here, and manned.” Jon
pointed at two of the backup stations. “Engineering, get me a report on the
ship's status.”

“Yes, Sir,” the Ensign now
sitting at Engineering said.

“Tactical, find out where the hell
we are,” Jon said.

“Yes, Sir, I’ll try,” the
Lieutenant said.

He sat down at one of the backup
stations and transferred Tactical to it. Then started to work, as he accessed
the information he needed to run the station.

‘Main reactor online,’ the computer
said.

“Where the hell is Atlanta?” Jon
said a bit of annoyance in his voice.

{
Jon?
} Andie said.

{
Thank, God! I keep forgetting
we can do this. Are you okay?
} Jon replied.

{
Yes, the medical teams are
spreading out to help people. I’m going to Main Engineering to check on them.
Is everyone up there okay?
}

{
Yes, Bill is fine. We’ve lost
Ensigns Baker and Halloway, but everyone else seems to be fine… other than
minor scrapes and bruises.
}

{
Good, I’ll keep you posted.
}

{
Be careful.
}

{
Yes, Sir.
}

“What is the status of the
computer core?” Jon asked.

“Computer core is currently
rebooting. All we have at the moment are emergency secondary systems,”
Engineering reported.

“I think I got this one,”
Tactical said. “Main Screen on.”

Everyone on the Bridge stopped
what they were doing, and stared at the large hologram that popped up in the
front of the room. The front of the room if you considered the way the stations
were slightly slanted towards that wall. The two Con stations faced that wall
completely, and left little doubt.

The hologram filled with stars
that moved from the bottom left, to the top right of the screen.

“Why are the stars moving like
that?” Terri asked.

“The ship is tumbling,” Carla
said. She had sat down at one of the Helm (Con was its designation as a base)
stations. “I don’t have any controls here, everything seems to be offline.”

“The computer is still booting,
we should have main systems back online, shortly,” Engineering said.

“Weapons and shield systems are
offline, still,” Tactical reported.

“Spiders are active, and are
responding to damaged sections,” Engineering reported.

“Engineering
Chief
Brad
Anspach has reported repairs are underway in
Main Engineering. A catwalk collapsing injured Computer Chief Mike Anspach, and
is going to Main Medical. Andie is en route, also. Engineering Chief Brad
Anspach has also reported an intruder, and is requesting a security detail.”

“Have Lieutenant Anders dispatch
a security detail to Main Engineering, to pick up the intruder,” Jon said.

The nanites relayed all this
because the ship itself had no internal communications. There was no need for
an internal communication system, when the nanites acted as one with everyone
aboard. Visitors without nanites communicated through special communication
devices they were required to wear at all times.

‘Main systems online… Main engine
warm-up commencing… Main engines will be online in ten minutes… Fold drive is
charging… Fold drive will be ready in one minute… Magnetic stabilizers online…
Correcting ship drift,’ the computer said.

On the screen they watched as the
stars slowed then stopped.

“Well, looks like that was simple
enough,” Carla said.

‘Weapons systems offline…
Dispatching maintenance bots… Shields offline… Rerouting power through
secondary systems… Shields online… Shields at five percent and charging…
Switching from back-up systems, to main systems,’ the computer said.

Jon stood there listening, as the
computer droned on through the various systems. It switched from back up to the
main systems, running diagnostics programs on each, as it did so. Atlanta had
yet to make an appearance, and Jon was starting to get worried.

“Engineering, have Engineering
Chief Anspach… You know what? That is confusing as hell! Have Chief Brad see
what’s wrong with Atlanta,” Jon said.

The Ensign grinned as he
responded, “Yes, Sir.”

A queen spider and some of the
medium spiders came out of the transportation tube, and began to repair the
bridge. Jon and a few others watched as they raised the catwalk, and repaired
the connection points that had failed. Two of the larger bots gathered the dead
Ensigns and ambled off down the tube. Smaller versions scoured the floor free
of blood and debris.

“Where are they going with the
bodies?” Terri asked.

“I have no idea,” Jon answered.
He spoke to the queen spider, “Where are they taking the bodies of the dead
Ensigns?”

The queen stopped what it was
doing and let out a few beeps and whistles.

“Any idea what it just said?” Jon
asked. The question wasn’t aimed at any one person, everyone shook his or her
head.

When the queen realized they
didn’t understand a hologram of the ship popped into existence above it that
showed the ship. The image shifted as it zoomed in and showed Main Medical and
then shifted until it displayed a detailed picture. The queen outlined a room
in red and began to blink
, ‘Morgue
.’

“Wow, I didn’t know they could do
that,” Terri said.

“Yeah, this base is just full of
surprises,” Jon said dryly. “Thanks. Please continue.”