Chroniech! (11 page)

"Very well," Stricklen replied then reached for the hatch's operating handle. As he entered the room Stricklen's eyes were drawn to the force field. It looked like a giant silver wall reflecting all incident light creating a strange, disorienting effect. Sorbith was standing with the Dragon's engineer and another individual whom he could not make out near one area of the force field.

The peacekeeper broke away and met Stricklen halfway. "So far we have been unable to analyze the force field," Sorbith said gesturing toward the silver wall. "The field structure is very complex. I have instructed your chief engineer to bring as much equipment as they need here to conduct a complete analysis of the field. What's our status?"

Stricklen looked all around the room taking in the size of the field. As he craned his neck to look at the upper portion of the force field he said, "The EMP damaged several minor systems and caused a trip of aux reactor two. Internal ship diagnostics show the force field passes through three of the ship's bulkheads. One on the deck below, one on the port side and the other just forward of the hanger. A minor power outage in an isolated area of the ship has resulted. Major systems are unaffected and we are currently on course for Almaranus at 2.8Kc. ETA — 6 days."

The silence that settled was interrupted by the chief engineer who had grown tired of being ignored and had walked over to where Stricklen and Sorbith were talking. "This is incredible!" he exclaimed. "The field structure is much finer than anything we can generate."

"Can we penetrate it?" Stricklen asked.

"Not without vaporizing a good portion of the ship," the engineer replied through a smile. "I'm not sure any of our main weapons would do the job either." Gesturing toward the silver wall he continued, "That force field is unlike anything I've ever seen before. We are dealing with a very advanced culture."

At that moment, Commander Kovalesky approached and said, "Excuse me sir, the perimeter of the force field has been secured. There are sixteen marines in full combat armor on standby at the far end of the hanger bay. Do you have any further orders?"

"No commander, well done," Stricklen replied. Turning back to Sorbith, he said, "What do we do now? Do we really know what this thing is? Are you sure we should take it all the way to Almaranus?"

Sorbith considered Stricklen's question. Almaranus was not only a strategically located planet, but it also possessed the largest spacecraft construction docks in the Alliance. The Alliance would suffer a great loss if the space-docks of Almaranus were damaged or, worse yet, destroyed.

"You have a good point," he replied. "Divert to Masfuta. During the transit I would like your crew to make all possible attempts at cracking that force field."

Stricklen was only vaguely familiar with Masfuta. He seemed to recall it was nothing more than a barren rock in space near the border between the Tholtar republic and the Rouldian sphere. He contacted the bridge and ordered the course change. The new time of arrival was now just under five days away. Stricklen then spoke to his chief engineer before retiring to his quarters.

In the privacy of his quarters, Ken pulled out an old-fashioned paper notebook and turned to the next blank page. Ever since he had been a child he had kept a hand-written personal diary. Over the years he had accumulated thousands of pages written in hundreds of books most of which were kept on a shelf in his home back on Earth. He found it enlightening to occasionally pull a book from the shelf and read it.

Pulling a pen from his desk he wrote:

5/14/22: First encounter with the Chroniech. They appear very aggressive and are a threat to the peace which the Alliance has achieved. Their ships are more advanced than ours. I fear the Alliance is in trouble and war is on the horizon. What is even more surprising is that the Chroniech know our language. This tells me they have been monitoring our communications for some time. The stasis chamber (if that is what it really is) is now in the Dragon's hanger bay surrounded by an impenetrable force field. I am worried about the fate of the those trapped inside. I have great concern about what this object is and what it contains. Why was it set adrift in space? What is in stasis? Are we about to unleash a force that can destroy us all?

Stricklen returned the diary to its place and poured himself a double rum. He took a sip and let the liquor sit on his tongue for a few seconds savoring the taste and the burning sensation. He swallowed and felt the burning move down his throat. The rum, however, did not help him shake the feeling of doom that had settled on him. He felt as if the weight of the future of the Alliance had been thrust upon his shoulders.

7 - Kyrra

The first thing the researchers had noticed once an atmosphere had been established around the stasis chamber was the deep, low frequency, undulating sound which permeated the entire chamber. The instant McCallister felt a slight click from the button under his finger this sound shifted and became a little higher in frequency — not much, but enough to be noticed.

The second thing that changed was the appearance of the spherical shell of force. Instead of a steady, scintillating, glowing ball of energy, it now pulsed. Falnath had stopped dead in her tracks and was staring at the stasis field. A fine network of silvery, spiderweb-like filaments had formed across the surface. This network crawled like ghostly electrical sparks along the entire surface of the sphere. The pulsing sound increased until it sounded more like a hum.

Several things suddenly happened at once. The surface of the sphere wavered then seemed to expand slightly. Several lights appeared on the main control console and a low pitched alarm emanated from a hidden speaker. The field then rapidly returned to its original size. In that instant Falnath was violently pushed backward and hit the wall with considerable force. She let out a loud hiss as a shooting pain traveled up her right rear leg.

Through the pain of the impact she glanced over and saw McCallister laying in a heap against an instrument rack, a trickle of blood running down his forehead. The analyzer he had been using earlier was slowly rolling across the floor, its display blank. Keefer, who had been leaning against the side of the power converter, had slumped over but appeared to be breathing.

Falnath tested her damaged leg and found that it hurt but would carrey her weight. She ignored the pain and made her way over to McCallister, ripped the sleeve off his shirt, and used it as a makeshift bandage. While doing so she kept an eye on the stasis field.

As she watched, the intensity of the glow began to fade. The actual surface of the stasis field generator could be seen as if through a hazy tangled filamentary web. The intensity of the sound began to drop and, at the same time, the web-work began to fade. In less than a minute, only the quiescent dull gray surface of the stasis device was visible.

Falnath carefully placed a clawed finger over McCallister's juggler and felt for a pulse. Her limited knowledge of Human physiology told her that he was alive, but nothing more. Satisfied that she had done all she could for him she quickly checked her own condition.

Her right rear leg had struck a cabinet and was painful to the touch but did not appear to be broken. Several of her scales near the point of impact were cracked and one had been torn off. She ignored the wound which was bleeding slightly knowing that her blood would quickly congeal forming a natural bandage.

Falnath then turned her attention to Keefer. On her way by the control panel she noticed that it was now fully active with several indicators blinking in different colors. Keefer was breathing slowly and regularly. There was a small bruise just below his left temple where his head had struck the side of the power converter.

A low thud from inside of the now quiescent sphere startled Falnath causing her to freeze. After about five seconds a second thump was heard followed by a series of loud clicks. A barely perceptible rectangular crack appeared on the surface of the stasis chamber. Falnath hunched down into a defensive posture and continued to watch.

A rectangular section of the sphere sank into the device to a distance of about half a meter. Then, without a sound, it moved to one side revealing an entrance roughly two meters tall and one meter wide. A dim light came from the interior. A few seconds passed, then a shadow from the inside obscured the doorway.

"Za too lomara kyrra?" a soft voice spoke from within.

Falnath waited. She was not afraid but every nerve of her body seemed to be on edge with anticipation. Beside her, Keefer started to show signs of recovery. He groaned and his head rolled forward. Over the sound of the alarm and Keefer's groaning, Falnath thought she heard the muffled sounds of a conversation from inside the sphere.

A minute passed before the shadow reappeared. From inside the now inactive device one of the occupants emerged. The creature standing before her was constructed along the same basic lines as virtually all member races of the Alliance. It stood on two legs and had the standard complement of two arms and one head with a pair of offset eyes in the front. All visible portions of the creature's body were covered with very fine, short, dense, polychromatic fur.

The head was supported about 150 centimeters off the floor by a thick body partially covered by a single piece of blue clothing. Two large, round eyes were set in the standard pattern above an almost invisible nose. The mouth was large and set almost flat. No ears were visible. The relatively long arms sported two elbows and were terminated by a hand with six digits.

The alien's fur reflected light in a constantly shifting multi-colored pattern much like one of Earth's butterflies. The effect was not overwhelming and allowed the underlying primary color (which in this case was a very light brown) to be easily seen. Each subtle movement caused a new color pattern to flow across the alien's body.

The alien slowly exited the chamber and quickly surveyed the room. Upon seeing Falnath crouching in the corner it made a small sound and froze. Another dressed in an identical outfit and sporting a very dark brown fur exited the chamber.

Falnath remained still as the two aliens engaged in a short conversation. The first one to emerge pointed to Falnath then toward the control console, spoke a few rapid words, then quickly moved toward the console. The other one turned back toward the sphere's entrance and said something.

Keefer groaned and stirred again. Falnath shifted her attention to the Human and noticed his eyes starting to open. She adjusted the volume on her vocoder then quietly said, "You have been injured. Please remain still. The stasis chamber has been shutdown and several of the occupants have emerged."

While Falnath had been talking three more furry aliens had emerged from within the chamber making the small room seem quite crowded. The alarm suddenly stopped as the alien at the control console started manipulating the controls. Falnath noted that the pulsing noise of the reactor had slightly risen in frequency.

One of them noticed McCallister's limp body and started to walk toward him. Not knowing its intent, Falnath stood up and, in her own native language, said, "Stop!"

All the aliens seemed to cringe and the one moving toward McCallister stopped and quickly retreated back toward the rest of the group. The one at the controls made a few more quick adjustments then joined his companions.

Keefer had heard Falnath's warning and had remained quiet while trying to regain his senses. He sat up and rubbed the side of his head. He looked around the room then turned to Falnath and said, "Looks like their afraid of you. What happened? Where's McCallister?"

"He is in the far corner on the other side of the control console," Falnath gestured toward where McCallister lay. "He is unconscious and has suffered a head wound. I used his shirt to fashion a temporary bandage. I think the stasis chamber created a gravitational wave as it shutdown. You were pushed into the side of the power reactor and hit your head. If you feel up to it I would appreciate it if you would go get some help. I am not familiar enough with your physiology to assess McCallister's condition and I would prefer not to leave the aliens unattended at this time."

Keefer slowly got to his feet. After making sure he could keep his balance he started slowly walking toward the door. The group of furry aliens watched him as they talked among themselves. One of them had gone to the back of the stasis sphere apparently to survey the damaged area. Keefer caught bits and pieces of their conversation. Their language sounded like a cross between ancient Chinese and Omel; a kind of sing-song speech with short guttural sounds.

As Keefer was making his way to the door one of the aliens took a few slow steps away from the group toward Falnath. Tapping its chest (the sexual orientation of the aliens was an unknown as they all appeared to be pretty much identical to each other) it clearly enunciated, "Kyrra."

Falnath tapped herself on the chest and in her own language said something. The word "Rouldian" issued from her vocoder in the language which was standard throughout the Alliance. She then pointed to Keefer who had almost made it to the door and said, "Human".

The Kyrra who had spoken, slowly walked over to Falnath and examined the vocoder which hung around her neck. Falnath removed the device and handed it to the other. He or she gingerly took it then turned the device over in its hands a few times and handed it back. Falnath put it back around her neck and made a connecting motion between herself and Keefer. The Kyrra seemed to understand and made a swaying motion with its head.

"We have a problem here," Keefer announced from the doorway. "There's some kind of force field surrounding us. I'm going to go check on McCallister."

Falnath made sure she had the Kyrra's attention, pointed toward the door then placed two of her hands together to form a spherical shape. Using one of her other hands she mimicked something trying to break through the sphere. In order to emphasize the point that this was unacceptable she let out an ominous sounding hiss.