Vaughn Heppner - The Lost Starship

“That isn’t what the medical creature told you,” Valerie pointed out.

“Let me ponder the implications of that,” Dana said.

As if they were on a battlefield, the team moved down the corridor in a staggered formation. Their weapons aimed here and there. Vacc-boots continued to crunch the ancient slime and occasionally caused a skeleton to burst apart into dust. The lights burned from the ceiling, providing illumination.

“I’m beginning to think that Doctor Rich is right,” Valerie said. “The ship is deserted.”

“Why the dichotomy?” Dana asked. “The medical creature painted a different picture of what we would find. I wonder if the last time it tried to board, the fight was still in progress. Yes. It might have tried once, maybe twice, and then it knew the hopelessness of entering the sentinel. After communicating with it, I sensed it wasn’t a curious creature, but lonely and frightened, as I’ve said before.” The doctor shook her helmet. “For six thousand years, the medical creature sought a way out of its predicament, refusing to try the only thing that would work: making another attempt to enter the sentinel.”

“Do you know this to be true,” Maddox asked, “or is this conjecture on your part?”

“Maybe a little of both,” Dana admitted.

They continued down the curving hallway. The skeletons of dead aliens and broken combat robots thickened in places and thinned in others. It appeared as if the battle had taken place along the entire breadth of this giant corridor, at least.

“I wonder how big the ship is,” Riker said later.

“I’ve been a fool,” Valerie said. “I’ve been so worried about these fabled defenders that I haven’t thought of anything else.” She adjusted her boxlike motion-detecting device. It made clicking sounds.

Maddox’s spine tightened. What did the noise indicate?

Lieutenant Noonan laughed, looking up. “I have good news. The ship’s atmosphere is breathable, although its carbon dioxide content is higher than I like. The bad news is that it’s far too cold to take into our lungs. We have to figure out a way to heat the air before we can take off our vacc-suits.”

“We’d better find a way to do that quickly,” Meta said. “Our oxygen tanks won’t last forever.”

They had brought extra tanks, but Maddox knew she was right.

“Even if we can breathe their air,” Keith complained, “we’re going to starve to death unless the aliens ate the same foods we do.”

Not only had they taken extra tanks, but each person had stuffed their suit with frozen food packets. Maddox figured they could eat rationed servings for another two weeks. After that, they would begin starving. Losing the scout could well prove deadly to their future survival.

For the next several hours, they explored the giant starship, walking from one end to the other. They found that it was three times the size of an SWS Gettysburg -class battleship, the largest Star Watch combat vessel.

Everywhere, broken fighting ’bots lay entwined with alien pincer skeletons. Clearly, it had been an epic boarding battle fought without quarter to the death.

“If you hadn’t linked with the medical creature,” Valerie told Dana, “we wouldn’t know who invaded and who had defended.”

As they began to retrace their steps, Maddox shouldered his repeater. The others had already put away theirs. It didn’t seem anything remotely alive had survived the many centuries. The starship was in effect empty, a Flying Dutchman of the space ways.

During the sweep back, they explored side hatches, possible weapon storage rooms and finally found the engine area. It was vast, with more of the dead on the floor and crusted slime on the plates.

Big broad metal-colored cylinders hummed with energy. Blue electrical currents flowed between the narrow structures on top of the cylinders. What might have been control panels to the side showed a bewildering set of Christmas lights that blinked in undecipherable sequences.

“Here is the evidence,” Meta said with awe in her voice. “The engines are running. Do you know how incredible that is?”

“Are they a type of fusion reactor?” asked Maddox.

“No,” Dana said. “That wouldn’t be my guess.”

“What would be?” asked Maddox.

“Antimatter,” the doctor declared.

“Do you agree, Meta?” asked Maddox.

“That’s far above my pay grade, Captain,” the Rouen Colony woman said.

“Supposing we can figure out how to control the vessel,” Keith said. “How do we fix the starship if she takes hits? The Commonwealth doesn’t have antimatter technology.”

“First things first,” Dana said.

“We’ve just gotten our first break,” Valerie chimed in. She was studying her device. “The air is breathable and warm enough here for us to take off our helmets. I think the engines heat this spot.”

Inside his helmet, Maddox exhaled sharply. He was the leader. He would test the lieutenant’s theory in order to make sure it was safe for the others. Reaching up to remove his helmet, he found Meta holding his arm, keeping him from it.

“Just a minute,” the Rouen Colony woman told him.

Maddox raised an eyebrow.

“Meta is right,” Dana said. “We must practice caution. Don’t do anything hasty, Captain. We’re on an alien vessel, a running starship from an era six thousand years ago. It’s reasonable to expect odd dangers. We must think through each of our steps before we try them.”

“You have a point,” Maddox said. “But if some of the basics don’t work, we’re dead anyway. This is one of them.” He shook off Meta’s restraining hand and twisted his helmet. Air hissed as he pulled off the metal. The pressure was greater in their suits than in the ship.

Maddox sniffed experimentally. The alien odors made him scowl. The chamber stank, although there was the smell of ozone mixed in that he didn’t mind. He drew a lungful through his nose, held it and exhaled. Then, he glanced at the others staring at him.

One part of Maddox wanted to drop onto the deck as if stricken. This would be the perfect moment for a joke. He refrained from that, however, smiling instead to show them everything was okay. “Let me breathe this stuff for a while. Then another of you can try it. Until then, you can watch me eat.”

He chose a packet of frozen hamburger patties. His rumbling stomach made no protest. Ripping open the fiber, he began to chew the cold hard particles.

A moment later, he heard popping noises and hisses of air as several of the others removed their helmets. Soon, the sound of chewing interrupted their search and thoughts.

Maddox had tasted better, but this was one of his most satisfying meals. He’d been ravenous.

Shortly thereafter, they began exploring again. They had to find the bridge, and then see if there was some way to figure out how to operate the starship.

It proved strange. The sentinel possessed large curving corridors that could have handled elephants. Then there was a spider web of tubular links so small Maddox’s shoulders brushed both sides as he negotiated one.

“Did the aliens have various sized individuals?” Dana asked.

“The small tubes give me claustrophobia,” Keith said.

They searched for hours, and found no evidence of a bridge or a living soul onboard.

“Now we know for a fact the vessel is fully automated,” Valerie said.

They were back in the antimatter engine chamber, breathing the tainted atmosphere.

“I keep thinking I’m forgetting something,” Dana said. “I’m so tired, though. It’s making it hard to deliberate.”

“You do look strained,” Meta told her.

Dana rubbed her eyes, saying, “Believe me, I feel it.”