Alaytion Archives: Mareliberum

Mareliberum

Book 3 of the Alaytion Archives

By Al DesHôtel

Copyright 2001, 2010 Al DesHôtel

Cover art © 2010 Garry Spoor

Smashwords Edition License

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the author's work.

Author's note: All characters depicted in this work of fiction are 18 years of age or older. All characters are fictional and any resemblances to actual persons living or dead is a coincidence.

Forward

This is the third volume of the history of Kaajii Morrell. It was compiled from the historical records of the Blink Alliance beginning with their time displacement from 2024 to 3024. Additional data was obtained from the archives of the Terran government, used by permission of his holiness, Pope Xanix XIII. Every effort has been made to assure completeness, but because of the possibility that the information from Terra was censored we cannot guarantee the accuracy of this compilation.

Some information contained in this report was purchased from the Sellena. Even considering their willingness to offer the information for sell I consider it an accurate portrayal of the events of the war between Unified Planetary Consortium and the Sellena. Although the Sellena were considered to have lost that war they nevertheless held the Blink Alliance in high regard and all admissions as to the perceived strengths of the Alliance are not exaggerated.

Further information included in this history was obtained from the archives of the Alaytion Empire. Information contained includes both their attempts at altering history and their contact with the Blink Alliance beginning in 3026. Much of the archival data from the period covered in this book was lost during the Alaytion - Coq war of 87-342-3433.23 (Alaytion temporal measurement). What information we have obtained from the Alaytions is still considered sensitive and therefore, of necessity, has been severely edited for inclusion in this text.

-- Archives of Sans L’Toriel

R223-12 loo wewn, Chief of level 17 history

ONE

You’re telling me that we are now a thousand years in the future and not one year as we had planned? Kaajii asked.

Yes, I am. I don’t understand it either. I had it set for one year, look. Cheryl Lockwell said, pointing to the time displacement console on the blink drive.

Sure enough, that’s what it says. The power drop indicates a thousand years. Kaajii said, looking out the forward viewing port.

The planetary positions agree. It is December 30, 3024. 11:30 Lunar Standard Time. Brad Zimmsbury said, looking up from his computer projection of the star field for that date.

Mr. Morrell? Lt. Yara Hale queried, trying to get Kaajii out of his trance. After several seconds he looked up and she asked, So now what do we do?

"For the time being we need to get this ship operational. Just because this ship is named Phoenix doesn’t mean that we need to resurrect it from the ashes -- again. Energize the gravomagnetic drives, pull in some interstellar hydrogen. Assess the damage to the ship. Brad, I want you to find out what our operational status is. Someone see if you can get the Medical Branch to give you a status report. We’ll meet at 1300 hours in conference room 7." Kaajii said as he stepped off the bridge into the access corridor.

Captain off the bridge. Yara said, turning to her computer console to prepare a report.

--**--

Fifteen kilometers aft of the bridge was the mid-ship engine room. It was actually more of a mechanical room than an engine room. Its equipment serviced roughly one third of the ship with the remainder serviced by the forward and aft engine rooms. Of the three the only true engine room was the aft one.

Kaajii checked the pressure gauge, an antiquated but reliable instrument, before entering the room. With the battle damage that they had sustained before the time displacement there was a very high probability that some areas were without atmospheric pressure. Seeing normal pressure he entered. His nose wrinkled up at the acrid smell of burned insulation. He quickly scanned the room and noted a charred spot on the left-hand wall. No one appeared to be present.

Crossing purposefully to the charred area he saw that the power conduit to the blink drive had overheated and burned all the insulation off. The circuit breaker was tripped indicating that there was a short in the circuit. White residue of Franiff-88 was indicative of someone putting out the fire with the retardant material. After the ban on Halon in the early 1990’s it had taken nearly forty years to come up with an acceptable fire suppressant, the FM200 of the late 20th century being too costly.

Opening up the cabinet of the power distribution buss leading into the blink drive he saw that it too had sustained damage. It would have to be completely rebuilt. He closed it and moved onto the control circuit box. This, at least, appeared operational.

After assessing the damage to the blink drive Kaajii left the room, and its smell, behind. He took the traverse corridor some half kilometer to starboard to enter the tramway. It was operational and hadn’t been breached. Taking the tram he went to the aft engine room. With the ship being thirty kilometers in length he had a few minutes to think on the way.

The aft engine room had reported the heaviest damage during the battle. Funny, he hadn’t actually thought of it as a battle before. Being attacked many years ago during their departure from earth was also considered a battle, even if the forces of the Blink Alliance hadn’t returned fire. Now, as he sat and thought, the facts coalesced into reality. He had run from nearly every battle he had been involved in. Sure, he had sent forces down to earth to fight, but he had never actually participated in a battle yet. Being on the bridge while the aft engine room was being shot full of holes some thirty kilometers behind you didn’t qualify you as being in battle. At least not in Kaajii Morrell’s mind.

The tram slid silently and smoothly along its magnetically contained tube. It was powered by magnetic induction from the tracks. Lucky for Kaajii that he didn’t try the port side tram, since it was out of service, having been opened to space in at least four different places.

Arriving at the aft engine room service corridor he realized that there was nothing he could do. The pressure gauges to all of the doors read zero. Full vacuum. Whoever was left in there was by now dead. Splatters of blood and torn fragments of clothing were evident near the door nearest to the starboard tram. Someone had been saved, at least he hoped. Checking his watch, Kaajii boarded the tram and headed for the conference room. He hadn’t seen anyone since he had left. To have nearly three thousand people on board the ship it seemed surprisingly empty.

--**--

After grabbing a sandwich and a drink, Kaajii went to the conference room. He finished eating just moments before his remaining officers entered. After leaving Wink station on the back side of the moon he had organized the scientists into a paramilitary organization. This did simplify the chain of command matters, which up until then had been somewhat disorganized.

Everyone came in silently and took a seat. Kaajii then realized just how many people had been killed. With the absence of Mike and Natissa he had only Brad still with him from the early days of the K.I.M. lab. He fought the urge to sit down and cry at the loss of Natissa. He would do that later. Now he had to be the strong leader he had been for many years and lead them out of this mess and on to something better.

As the hour of 1300 arrived everyone began checking their watches, wondering when it would start. Kaajii sensed this and began, Ok we have lost a lot of people, and our home. But we are alive with plenty of supplies and a good ship. We’ll make it. I want to believe that, and it’s important that you believe it too. If we lose the faith then we have all had it. First order of business, Shelly, what’s the causality list look like?

Two hundred seventy four dead. Eighty six more in and around sick bays. I expect to lose about a quarter of them. Shelly Le Fan’Danko, the director of Medical Services said.

Damned. Brad said.

I know. It’s worse than I thought too. I thought everyone had been moved to the core, away from the skin of the ship? Kaajii asked.

They had. We took a series of hits along section C35 through D88. The outer shielding hadn’t been installed there yet. Apparently the United Earth Forces realized that and hit us hard. Their particle beams cut through four layers of compartments, opening some of the family living sections up to space. We lost over a hundred in that area alone. Shelly said.

Ok, I won’t point any fingers. Obviously in the heat of the moment we all forgot that that section wasn’t shielded yet. It’s easy to forget things like that when you are all warm and cozy inside of a tin can. That brings us down to 1777 people. Does that agree with your counts? Kaajii asked.

More or less. We still have several people unaccounted for. Crews are working now to repressurize some sections that don’t have much damage. I expect that they will find more there. There is also the possibility that some people are surviving in isolated, pressurized sections that are cut off from communications. Shelly said.

Over half of the installed communications circuits in the ship are presently inoperable. Brad said.

As are most of the drive systems. Lt. Keoko Juitsumi added.

So, where are we anyway? Brad said.

When are we would be the better question. Cheryl answered.

Yes, quite. When are we then, and how did we get here? Kaajii asked her.

Well, I looked at the instrumentation console and found a very simple mistake in wiring. When Bill wired the panel in control of the Blink machine he swapped the thousands and ones wires. Since the display and control pad are an integrated unit the display correctly follows what you key in. So, keying in 1 year correctly showed one year. But, the one was actually driving the thousands level damper and as such we blinked out a thousand years instead of one year. And, before you ask, the drone is still flitting back and forth from 2024 to 2025. Or at least it will be for the next several hours. When the fail-safe kicks in at three hours it will self-destruct. Cheryl said.

So why is it still stuck in the year you entered rather than when we went? Kaajii asked.

Because it too was reversed. Cheryl said.

How, exactly do you mean reversed? Kaajii queried.

Well, the ones control wire was yellow and the thousands was green. He reversed them on the console and also in the drone control. Cheryl said.

Why did he do that? Brad asked.

Because he is partially color blind. Bill Tamoyoti is of Japanese ancestry. The Japanese male has nearly a 15% incidence of color blindness. Much higher than almost any other specific group of humans. Shelly said.

I didn’t know he was color blind. Cheryl said.

Great. Well ... at least we had a full head of steam before we took off. Otherwise I would hate to think of what might have happened. That certainly explains the power drop that was consistent with a thousand year rather than a one year jump. When you get a chance you might want to rewire the main power distribution box in central engine room. It’s cooked. Kaajii said locking stares with Cheryl who was feeling guilty about not checking her boyfriend’s work.

Kaajii ... I’m sorry. She said meekly.

Don’t worry about it. There was nothing you could have done about it. It’s not your fault. We’re ok. Thanks to your efforts we are all alive. Which is a lot more than I think I could say if we hadn’t used the blink drive. Shelly, I want you to test everyone on board for color blindness, including yourself and me, and issue stern warnings to them not to do anything by color alone. Tell those who are to get their work double checked when in doubt. We are lucky this time. Kaajii said.

Yes sir. Shelly said, she made a note on her electronic notepad.

Now Brad, what’s the status of the rest of the ship. Besides the rear engine room. Kaajii said.

I see you’ve been there. It’s pretty bad. The aft engine room is going to take months to repair. Central room is ok. Forward room has some small leaks but nothing that GOO can’t fill. The outside of the ship only has about thirty percent coverage with the armor. Those areas held up well. We have lost roughly fifteen percent of the previously pressurized volume. Our navigational shields are fully functional at 10% of rated power. Our gravomagnetic drives are down to four percent of design capacity. Two ships in landing bay seven were damaged. Other than that it has been a nice day. Brad said sarcastically.

Wonderful. Anyone else have good news too? Kaajii asked.

The port hydrogen collection siphon is out of service for a while. Jason Nario said.

Is the starboard one ok?

Yes sir. We are pulling in about two hundred kilograms an hour. Jason told Kaajii.

Ok, well that is plenty enough mass to do some repairs on. Yara, what’s our position and speed? Kaajii asked.

We are about five hundred thousand kilometers from Mars, south of the plane of the ecliptic. We are headed outbound from the system at approximately two kilometers per second. Our acceleration is decreasing rapidly. Yara said.

Well, we are too far away to go back now. Even if we wanted to. We just don’t have enough to bite into with the gravomagnetic drive. Brad, what is the status of the ion drive? Kaajii asked.

We are looking at nine months to a year before its ready.

Ok. That’s it then. We drift until we get something viable working. Someone needs to rig up a hydrogen rocket system that we can feed from mass converters so we can at least have thrusters. There is plenty of space at the corners of the ship. We designed it for that from the beginning. Scott, you want to take care of that for me? Kaajii asked.

Sure. Petty Officer Scott Lamar said.

Good. And if you get finished with the thrusters we can build a few extras and put them in the main drive area until the ion drive is ready. Cheryl, let me know when the blink drive is operational again. Meanwhile I have some other things in mind for tinkering with the blink field. It might just be possible to get positional translation in addition to time translation. Get that and we have it made. Kaajii said.

You’re not kidding. I still can’t believe that we are now a thousand years into the future. What do we do if they notice us? Brad asked, referring to the humans that theoretically should be on and around earth.

I don’t know. I don’t think they will see us for a while yet. Since we are out of the ecliptic plane we won’t be in the major inter-system traffic lanes. That is if they haven’t all destroyed themselves by now. Where is Rick? Kaajii asked, referring to Rick Englemann, Communications Chief.

He’s in sickbay with a couple of broken ribs and some very nasty cuts on his legs. When one of the compartments depressurized he was sucked against a doorway. He managed to close the door before he blacked out. The automatic equalization sensor kicked in and the atmospheric replicator got enough air back to him before serious damage was done. Shelly said.

So who’s here from communications?

No one sir. Yara said.

Well, I’ll pay them a visit after the meeting and see what sort of signals our little friends are emitting. Maybe they have become more hospitable by now. Kaajii said.

If they still exist. A millennium is a long time. Brad said.

Kaajii, there is one more thing. I regret telling you this, I wish I didn’t have to ... I ... we ... section G29 was a total loss. Shelly finally managed to say.

At the mention of section G29, the section where his daughter, Veronica, was staying with her baby-sitter, Kaajii got up and left the meeting. The tears were already overflowing; he quickly got out of sight before they were visible.

--**--

March 22, 3024

Thrusters show operational status. Auxiliary propulsion system is ready. Yara said.

Set a heading for the greater Magellanic cloud. Kaajii said.

Heading positioning complete in three minutes.

Engage auxiliary drive system, one tenth power. Kaajii ordered.

Drive system at one tenth power. Rate of burn is four hundred kilograms per minute. Brad said.

At that rate we won’t be able to use it for long. What are our fuel reserves?

The auxiliary fuel system mass converter tanks show about seven metric tons each. That should give us a little over thirty minutes of thrust at the present power setting. Cone temperature is nominal. Brad said.

Ok, shut it down when the fuel runs out. How long until the extra gravomagnetic collectors are operational? Kaajii asked.

Five or six more days. Brad said.

Well, at least we have a means of moving about now. That is, at least, some comfort. Yara, schedule for about a five minute burn every day as the fuel tanks get replenished. Let me know when we reach something around .2 c. Hopefully we will have the ion drive on line by then, or maybe the blink drive. Kaajii said and got up to leave.

Yes sir. Why the greater Magellanic cloud? Yara replied interrogatively.

Well, we know from our EM survey that the humans have managed to venture out as far as Jupiter. Quite possibly they are beyond that and we just haven’t heard any transmissions from them. It’s still too early to tell. Because of our distance the time delay makes attempting to break into their communications networks prohibitive so we will have to settle for just listening. At this distance it takes the signals over three hours -- one way. Kaajii said.

So you don’t think they would be going our direction? Yara asked, turning around in her chair to face Kaajii.

No, I don’t. It doesn’t make much sense unless you have true interstellar capability. Which, of course, we barely have ourselves. No, if I was sending out a mission the first, best bet would be Alpha Centuari. It’s the closest. Given the technology of 2025 they could have made a round trip in less than 20 years. A millennium later, who knows? At any rate my guess is that they wouldn’t venture out this way for quite some time. There is nothing out here. We will clear the Milky Way in about five hundred light years. Beyond that, we are looking at millions of light years before we reach the outskirts of the greater Magellanic galaxy. Kaajii said.

So we won’t live to see it. Yara said dejectedly.

Don’t bet on that honey. You should know Kaajii by now. We wouldn’t even be here if it wasn’t for his beyond-fantastic theories. I suspect he has something planned for us. Brad said, looking at Kaajii.

Right you are old boy. Once the blink drive is ready we will be there instantly. Assuming, of course, that you have enough mass converters ready to supply the power. Kaajii said as the doors opened to the bridge access hallway.

They’ll be ready.

Promises, promises... Kaajii could be heard saying as the doors closed behind him.

Do you think he can really do it? Yara asked, busily keying in system commands to stop the rotation of the ship.

You should have asked that question a thousand years ago. Brad said.

Touché

TWO

October 31, 3024 -- Bromhagen Observatory, Pluto orbit

What do you suppose this is? Alicia Fernandez asked.

Pulsar of some sort. I’ve been noticing it for several months now. It has a periodicity of 24 hours, almost to the second. Damned peculiar being that time interval. Coincidence I might could handle, but it’s the apparent motion that bothers me. From the observational data I have collected it appears to be moving from our solar system outwards. Jerry O’Brien said.

Comet?

I don’t think so. A comet would stay lit up all the time, however dimly. This thing flashes once a day. It’s moving at 7.5 million miles per hour. The odd thing is that it appears to be accelerating. Last month I calculated it to be moving at 6.2 million miles per hour. Damned strange. Jerry said.

Did you report it?

Sure, got the usual rubbish about it being some sort of optical anomaly due to the refractive properties of the lenses. That’s all a bunch of crap and they know it. Central command just doesn’t want to admit that something is out there because then they would have to go check it out. Fine by me. I don’t care what they think, I believe it’s some sort of spacecraft. Jerry said.

Maybe it’s a hush-hush deep space probe and they do know about it but want you to keep quiet. Alicia said.

No, they would tell me it’s a class seventeen object then. They haven’t told me that.

Maybe they can’t tell you that because someone who is in charge of the secret stuff would have to know then. Maybe it’s like double secret or something and they don’t want the single secret group to know about it. Telling you that it was class seventeen would necessitate you reporting it as such and the single secret group of people would find out about it then. Alicia mused as she watched the bright object extinguish itself. She looked up and nodded. Jerry noted the time on his terminal.

You’ve been watching too many spy movies.

Or it could be a being from beyond the grave out haunting all the space travelers! Alicia said flippantly.

Happy Halloween to you too. Jerry said and took the observational chair behind the telescope.

--**--

Phoenix

Sir, the ion drive system preliminary tests are all within design parameters. Yara said as she looked at the report on her screen.

As I expected. Now that the drive is operational we have redundant motive power. Kaajii said as he opened a communications circuit, Cheryl Lockwell, Brad Zimmsbury and Chadwick St. James report to the bridge.

You mind telling me again exactly how you plan to get us to the Magallenic galaxy before we all die of old age? Yara asked.

Not at all my dear, not at all. It all started by realizing that the calculations for the time displacement capabilities of the blink drive are dependent on the universal movement properties of galaxies and objects within. I had to compensate for that since the object being blinked from one time continuum to another would have to be in a different relative position. This is because all objects in our little universe are moving outwardly from the center. Each is moving away from the other, relatively speaking. So, if an object exists in one place and for it to exist in the same relative position in the universe after the time hop it has to move. Otherwise if I displaced a cup of coffee on a table for a period of one thousandth of a second it would rematerialize in mid-air. The table upon which it formerly sat would have moved many kilometers in that brief time interval. Kaajii said.

So even though we don’t realize it we are all moving very fast away from the center of the universe? Yara asked.

Correct. All we really have to do is disallow for the relative motion and we therefore move relatively -- so to speak. Actually, the displacement variables are all part of the calculations necessary to the blink process. Kaajii said.

So you can make us appear anywhere, at any time? Brad said, the doors to the access hallway closing behind him.

That’s about the size of it. The blink drive is good for large distances, but for close in work it is not to be trusted. I don’t know exactly what would happen if you materialized where something else existed. Because of the trace amounts of interstellar hydrogen that are present and some small asteroids at the points where we re-enter normal space-time Cheryl and I have a theory that the matter is displaced out of our continuum. I guess back to the point of origin, her guess is in another dimension. Either way it could spell disaster for whatever is in our way. If, however, we are both wrong I sure would hate to re-enter in the middle of a moon or something. Kaajii said.

Me too. Yara said.

I’ll second that. Brad said.

That is the reason for the drone. It blinks back and forth between the target and reality, provided of course you haven’t made any errors in your calculations or wiring, and returns to you a view of what is on the other side. Since the blink drives in the drone and the ship operate independently a margin for error exists. And we have experienced that.

Why not synchronize the two? Brad asked.

We thought about that. The problem being that every hop, in and out is just a little different. Until we get the equations worked out we will have to rely on manual mode. By the way, everyone on the bridge needs to be trained on the use of the blink drive system. Not only for blink hops, but in case of emergency. Say for instance we were being attacked by several hostile ships... Kaajii paused to see everyone roll their eyes back, and you want out quick. Lift up the protective cover and press the HOME button. The drive will energize at maximum drain and then automatically blink you back to the preset destination. Right now we have it set for a point some half million kilometers in front of us. I felt that this was as good a place as any for a safe haven. From a power down condition it shouldn’t take more than five minutes until the drive engages. Pressing the button again will abort the sequence. In addition to automatic positional and time translation the HOME feature will automatically power up as many mass converters as it can find in the system. This, of course, is based on availability status bits in the central memory. Kaajii explained.

That sounds like it might be useful, at least keep us out of the fire. Brad added.

What’s up? Cheryl asked as the doors opened to reveal her slender, young form. She was wearing some very tight jeans and a halter-top.

We are about to test the blink drive .. I wanted you to run it. Kaajii said, his attention momentarily diverted from the task at hand.

Chet, have you got a fix on our position? Kaajii asked.

As ordered. Chester Nirkoyami answered.

Where is Chadwick? Kaajii asked.

Right here. Chad replied as the doors closed behind him.

Good, I want you to watch the life support systems and mass converter output during this test. Kaajii said. Chadwick nodded an affirmative as he took his place at a console.

Energize the blink coils.

Residual charge at 4%, loading at 5% per minute. Cheryl replied.

Twenty two mass converters on-line, operation nominal. Chad said.

Where are we going? Brad said.

Fair question. Cheryl, set the coordinates for about five hundred light years from the Magellanic galaxy, this side. Have our present coordinates in secondary storage. Give me a power consumption projection. Kaajii said.

What happens if it doesn’t work? Brad said.

Then we go nowhere real quick, or we go poof! Kaajii smiled.

That’s real reassuring.

Seven percent storage for the hop each way. Currently at 19%. Cheryl said.

Attention. This is the captain speaking. We are going to attempt positional displacement using the blink drive system. Kaajii said and then let up on the ship wide intercom.

Was that supposed to help? Brad asked.

Quit being so squeamish. We know the drive works for time displacement. So in a sense, it’s not entirely untested. We just haven’t tried to displace our position in the same time frame before. Theoretically it should work. Kaajii said.

Yeah, and theoretically there are black holes too. Only no one has ever seen one. Brad said.

23% Cheryl said.

Deploy drone.

Drone deployed ... transition ... its back. Blink regular, four second interval. Cheryl said.

Radar and infrared scanners clear. Brad said, watching the display that the drone was sending back of its destination.

27%

Visual? Kaajii asked.

Nearly a minute went by, Visual compares to theoretical chart. Brad confirmed.

Activate drive. Kaajii said.

Activating drive.

Everyone watched as the starfield on the screen silently blinked out and then back. When it came back, however, it was different. Very different. The stars were all in different locations. Everyone looked around at each other to make sure that one another were really still there.

Drive at 22% and charging. Cheryl said, breaking the silence.

Brad? Kaajii asked.

Several minutes more went by, everyone on the bridge anxious for the results of their journey. If everything went as planned they would find themselves hundreds of thousands of light-years from the point that they had just left. Being so distant they could only guess at what the star maps would look like. Indeed, many of the stars that they could see from the Milky Way galaxy would no longer exist. The light traveling across the great void between galaxies took hundreds of thousand of years to reach their eyes. Even with instantaneous translation many of the points of light that they saw would have long ago burned out.

In fact there was a good chance that all they would find was a bunch of burned out dwarf stars and interstellar clouds of dust and debris.

Looks like we made it. Brad finally said, precipitating a rousing cheer from the bridge crew.

Kaajii reached down into the bag beside him and popped the cork on the champagne bottle, spewing foam all over the ceiling.

You can take us nearly a million light-years across the universe in a barely movable, not even near complete starship and yet you make a mess with the champagne! Brad said.

Blink Ship. Kaajii smiled.

Blink Ship. Brad agreed. Congratulations. You have once again shown your genius and willingness to carry through. What’s next in your master plan?

Yeah, Kaajii. Now what? Yara asked.

We finish the ship. Then ... we go exploring! Kaajii said with the zeal of a child loose in a toy store on Christmas Eve.

The partying continued well into the next day. The blink drive was successfully tested. They blinked back to a point closer to the Milky Way, with caution guiding their judgment. They calculated the velocity vector so that they would coast into the earth solar system within nine years. Completion of the ship was estimated to take another two years.

--**--

March 12, 3025 -- Blink Ship Phoenix

We have picked up messages similar to this one before. Shelly said.

Yes, but this one specifically states that their destination is the Deneb system. The text mentions a passenger drop off at Hakke spaceport. If they mean Hakke, Mars then we have a definite tie in to a ship passing Mars on the way to Deneb. That means that the humans have achieved interstellar travel. Rick said excitedly.

So what? We did it, why can’t they? Shelly asked, still unconvinced of the importance of this message.

Normally it wouldn’t be of much concern. We can outrun anything they have. I say this with confidence because I don’t believe the odds of them developing something equivalent to blink drive are very high. However, I’m curious as to what they are using for a drive system. Kaajii said.

Let us remember too that there were probably several people left on Mars who would have had time to examine the ships. They did, after all, have possession of them for many weeks. It is possible that they stole the gravomagnetic and mass converter technologies. Brad said. Everyone looked at Brad, except for Kaajii who just sat staring out the window.

We also need to remember that they could have found Wink station. Kaajii added.

If they did... Rick trailed off at the implications of the humans on earth possessing the archives of the Blink Alliance that had been left behind at Wink station. Every effort had been made to seal up the complex, but after a thousand years it was certainly possible that someone had found it.

--**--

March 14, 3025 -- Unified Planetary Council Meeting, City of Tel ‘Dar, planet Chamos

... deliver us from evil. Amen. The bishop said making a sign of the cross over the meeting assembly.

Thank you Bishop Sterns. I hereby call to order this meeting of the Unified Planetary Council this fourteenth day of March the year of the lord thirty-twenty-five. Well, we have several orders of business to attend to before we break for lunch, so let’s get busy. First up is the approval for the council seat for next quarter. Father Orenek. Bishop Sinnes said.

Thank you Bishop Sinnes. As you all know we must by order of the cannons of the council move the seat every quarter to a different member dioceses. The next on the list is the dioceses of St. Thomas on the planet Lexxai in the Ci system. However, due to the recent monsoons there and the unavailability of suitable lodging I submit to you that we should instead move to the dioceses of Holy Shroud on Lexxai. That would fulfill our requirement that Lexxai have its turn and also provide us with better accommodations. Father Orenek said.

Any one want to discuss it? Bishop Sinnes asked. Not getting any response he asked for and got consent from the group to move the meeting place for the council during next quarter to Holy Shroud on Lexxai.

--**--

Bromhagen Observatory, Pluto orbit

This is inconsistent with the earlier data. Are you sure about this? Sister Mary Francis asked.

Yes ma’am. We watched the pulsar moving away from us for many months. Then suddenly it was gone. Robert Rigley said.

Flipping through the document the nun let out gush of air. You’re right, this is strange. You do of course have independent confirmation of this, don’t you? She asked.

Yes. This morning the Telmark II station verified it. That’s why I called you. Someone needs to know about it. Robert said.

You are certainly correct about that. I gather from your report that you don’t think it’s naturally occurring. She mused.

No. At least nothing we can explain.

Another life form?

Probably. Well, at least that is what I would guess based on my observations. Robert said.

Do you have any recommendations for the council? Sister Francis asked.

Send someone out to observe it at close range. It shouldn’t take more than two weeks travel time with one of the fast ships. It is, after all only about a half a light year out.

Ok, I’ll pass that recommendation on to the council. Have a good evening doctor. She said and left before he could tell her good bye.

--**--

April 15, 3025 -- Blink Ship Phoenix

Well, since you all seem to have things under control I thought that I would take a little vacation -- alone. Kaajii said to a room full of disbelieving faces.

Why do I get the idea that your vacation may be near ... say the vicinity of earth? Brad asked.

Well, I hear that the weather is nice there this time of year. Kaajii replied.

How do you plan to get there? Yara asked.

"Explorer II."

I thought it wasn’t finished yet? Shelly asked.

It wasn’t, I mean isn’t. I plan on leaving tomorrow, after the interior is done. I know it wasn’t supposed to be done until a few months from now, but I have been staying up late working on it. Seems that some mysterious helpers have been doing work on it while I slept. Kaajii said, trying to spot the culprit.

Karl Wiggins was busily staring at the wall when he noticed Kaajii watching him. He broke the silence, Well, what was I supposed to do, let him do it by himself? The people in the room broke out in laughter.

What are the blue tubes for? Brad asked.

"You too? Look, guys, I really appreciate you all helping but it wasn’t necessary. But, thank you anyway. The blue tubes that Brad mentioned are the new tachyonic thrusters. They work in the lab well enough and on a small model ship that I put them into Explorer II. That will provide me motive power when not within a dense enough gravity field. The designs are in the files, I suggest that you may want to put some around the Phoenix and replace the hydrogen burners. They are at least half again more efficient.

At any rate, I’m going to go into the system and take a closer look to see what they are up to. I’ll try to be back here in a few months. I have five remote blink drones with messaging capabilities aboard. They are already programmed with your projected glide path. I’ll send you one back upon arrival into the system to let you know I got there. Others as I need them. They will activate beacons upon destination which should trip a sequence in the main computer to arrange for a pick-up. Radio at this distance is useless." Kaajii finished.

And if you don’t make it back? Shelly asked.

I’d advise you all to turn around and head for deep space. No suggestions as to where, besides which I don’t think that it would be wise for me to know where you are going. If I get captured or delayed I’ll arrange to meet the drone at HOME position. Sending the drone you can survey the situation from remote without risking the ship. If it looks ok then pick me up, otherwise assume I’m dead. Kaajii said.

Are you sure you know what you are doing? Brad asked.

About as sure as anything else, I guess. Anyway I only have two goals at the present time. One is to explore. Two is to find out about the mystery race. I figure that our own solar system is as good of a place as any to start. I am really curious to see if the humans have progressed outwards. The signals you picked up were over three years old by the time you heard them. Kaajii said.

Why won’t you let any of us go with you? Suiko asked.

I’ve already caused you all enough trouble, besides it’s a long trip and I need some time to myself. And, if I’m captured, as far as their records show, I’m the only fugitive.

A thousand years is a long time. Whatever happened to ‘time heals old wounds’? Brad asked.

Perhaps I will find them amicable to my presence. Who knows? Imagine what it would be like for someone of our time meeting a mystic from medieval Europe. He would be an anachronism. He would probably be befuddled, they would feel uneasy. They would certainly want to study him. That, of course, is my main concern. Someone may decide to capture me for scientific study. However, I’ll assure you that I won’t go willingly. Don’t you all worry about me. It’ll be a vacation. Five weeks travel will give me plenty of time to rest. And I have on board some of the best weapons that Mike ever developed. Kaajii said.

Well, I guess that we can’t talk you out of it can we? Shelly asked, paused and then added, Best of luck.

--**--

April 20, 3025 -- Unified Planetary Council Meeting, Province of Stal, Planet Lexxai, Ci system.

Sister Mary Francis has the floor. Bishop Willington said.

Thank you Bishop Willington. Brothers and sisters, I have just traveled from the plant Pluto in the Terran system. The Bromhagen Observatory there has been watching an unusual object for some time... she gave her report complete with graphic displays of the computed trajectories. After stopping for several questions during her presentation she finally concluded, As you can see, it is in our best interests to find out what this object is. I suggest that we send out a scout ship to find out and deal with any possible threat to our member worlds.

Thank you sister. Brothers and sisters, I concur with Mary Francis’ opinion, we must know what it is. Does anyone want to open the discussion? Bishop Willington asked.

Brother Willington I for one don’t see what there is to discuss. I say that we take a vote now. We are, after all, only talking about sending one scout ship. Father Chestovanich said. Others around the room nodded.

Ok, all in favor? All opposed? Well by that the decision passes, we will send out one our fastest ships. Father Ramize, will you please pass the order on to the Holy Navy?

--**--

May 17, 3025 -- Blink ship Explorer II

Kaajii sat at his desk reading technical data and making notes on his screen. He had arisen this morning and punched up a heavy breakfast of bacon, eggs, toast, grits and orange juice. Afterwards he did a half an hour on the workout equipment in the aft compartment. A quick shower and he had settled in to edit documentation on power systems designs. He had been at it for almost an hour when the alarm sounded.

Quickly getting to the main console he saw the blip on the forward radar screen. Keying in commands and high lighting the target on the screen the computer displayed the projected course. It passed directly through the center of the radar screen. It was on a definite collision course with him. Changing the course of Explorer II he watched and waited.

After nearly an hour the blip’s course didn’t change from the original. Kaajii got up and stretched. Obviously they didn’t see him. Either that or they didn’t change course to intercept for fear that he would turn and run. Interesting situation, he thought. There was only one other possibility.

After keying in the commands to send a message to the Phoenix he deployed the drone. It would blink back to a position near the Phoenix and then instruct the mother ship’s computer to send a message for it to be picked up. From there a memory dump would be taken and they could read his message.

The drone hadn’t been gone for more than two minutes when a message came across his general purpose terminal requesting a drone pick-up. This was strange Kaajii thought, why would they be sending him a drone carried message at the same time he sent them one. Surely they couldn’t have detected the unknown ship at this distance. He entered the commands for the drone to be retrieved into one of the drone tubes. Once there it would automatically connect to the main computer.

Several minutes went by before connection. Then the message came up that drone 4 was on-line. Each drone carried an on-board computer system with enough functionality to allow it to store images of distant places, control the blink drive, a set of small positional thrusters and programs. Kaajii keyed in the access code. Seconds later the screen cleared and the first page of the message was displayed.

TO: Kaajii

FROM: Brad

TEXT: Received message and understand. Have altered position by +.4 L-Y in z-axis. Will deploy drones to observe ship. This drone was deployed with a -T to compensate for our decision and action time. It should reach you moments after your deployment. Another drone will be coming in approximately 10 minutes with further data.

Well no wonder Kaajii thought. Brad was using the time shift capability of the blink drive to send the drone back in time. This would give him the ability to analyze the situation and get the information to Kaajii. However, that didn’t fit too well with paradox theory.

Kaajii waited. Sure enough, ten minutes later another drone appeared. He retrieved it and looked at the data. It contained several high-resolution images of the ship. An analysis of its design was included by one of the ship designers on board the Phoenix. The unidentified ship massed in at 140,000 metric tons. Magnetic resonance scan showed it to be carrying 611 life forms. Propulsion systems were unidentified but resembled gravomagnetic drives. Something resembling an ion drive was present in addition to what were obviously mass converters. The ship appeared to have weapons of some sort. After calculating an intercept course Kaajii set the tachyonic drive to half power and went back to editing his drawings.

--**--

May 21, 3025 -- Blink ship Explorer II

Kaajii maneuvered his ship up to a point directly in the path of the oncoming ship and matched its velocity and acceleration. Seconds later its acceleration went to zero. He had been noticed. He powered up the shields to 75%.

Adjusting his position and cutting power he sat and waited. He turned on the spectrum analyzer and watched. Let them make the first move. He did a scan of the ship and noted several hot spots on the hull. Correlating those with e-field readings he concluded that they must be shield generators. The positioning was such that they would have been very ineffective thrusters. He did a frequency analysis and noted that their shield frequency was much higher than his own. He entered the value into a data area on the computer and adjusted his microwave pulse frequency to match their shields.

He sat and waited as the minutes dragged by. What would they do, he wondered? Would they fire? He was watching the spectrum analyzer when he saw a spike at 882.234 MHz. It died quickly into the background noise. Several seconds later it reappeared. He entered commands for the computer controlled radio to match the frequency and display the waveform on the scope. The third time it appeared he capture several seconds of it in the computer memory. Analyzing it he saw that it appeared to be a sort of phase modulated signal. It didn’t appear to be digital by the sinusoidal patterns after compensating for phase shifts. He instructed the radio to use P4 modulation and engaged the speaker.

Seconds later the low hiss of background noise was broken, "Alien ship this is the Jerico of the Holy Navy, identify yourself." The message was English, this was at least not going to be confused by a language that Kaajii didn’t know. He listened and thought. The message was repeated a minute later. He keyed in the commands to adjust the phase and then enable the transmitter.

After the message repeated again he picked up the microphone, keyed it and spoke, Perhaps I don’t want to.

Nearly a minute went by. Then the disembodied voice said, "This is the Jerico of the Holy Navy, you are in Unified Planetary Council territory. By order of his holiness the pope, identify yourself."

Well, that was interesting Kaajii thought. Since when do you have a claim to deep space? You are, as I am sure you have noticed, not within the boundary of a star system.

You are trespassing in Unified Planetary Council territory, identify yourself. The voice said.

Maybe we should meet face to face. Kaajii suggested.

Perhaps we should, a boarding party will be sent over. The voice said. Several minutes went by and then, You will lower your shields so that you can be brought into our cargo bay.

I’m afraid I’ll have to disagree with you there. My shields stay up. Kaajii said. The minutes dragged by. The e-field monitor showed nominal.

This is Captain Amanda Kelly speaking. By order of the Unified Planetary Council you are ordered to lower your shields and be boarded. The woman’s voice said. Obviously the first flunky he had spoken with was no longer handling the situation.

Greetings captain. I’m afraid that I’m not under the rule of the Unified Planetary Council. I won’t lower my shields and you’re not going to board me. I will, however entertain one representative should you wish to send one over. Kaajii said.

You, mister, are an unidentified ship in UPC territory. As you are well aware without a filed flight plan you are in violation of regulations with respect to independent traders. We must assume therefore that you are a pirate. You will be treated accordingly. The captain said.

If you mean fire upon me, be my guest. Kaajii said with one eye on the power monitor and a finger on the blink button. He had energized the blink drive to full power nearly an hour ago.

Suit yourself.

As he saw the power fluctuation he engaged the blink drive and sent the Explorer II to a point on the opposite side of the Jerico. A split second later a beam shot forth from the front of the larger ship into space. Watching his analyzers Kaajii determined that the beam was a high powered particle beam. He adjusted his shield strength and frequency to be ninety degress out of phase and brought the Explorer II about to face the large ship.

Missed. Kaajii said into the radio.

A second beam shot forth from the back of the ship and impacted on the forward shield of the Explorer II. The power drain on the shield increased proportionally with the deflection of the particle beam.

Hit. Want to try for two out of three? Kaajii said on the radio. He engaged the blink drive and went to the port side of the large ship just as another beam dissipated into the space that he had previously occupied. At this close range he had overridden the drone deployment program since he could see where it was that he was going to rematerialize.

Well now captain, one out of three isn’t too bad for a rank beginner. As you can see, I’m still here and you still don’t know anything. Now, if you want to try it my way then send someone over and we can talk. Kaajii said beginning to get ruffled at their attitude.

He was rewarded by several minutes of silence and then was hit by another particle beam. This one was of long duration and put a heavy drain on his starboard shield. Guess they aren’t talkative today. Kaajii said to himself as he engaged the demolecularizer beam, cutting away their port shield generator.

Ms. Kelly, if you are quite through with your display of inadequate force I think you should try finding out who I am before you end up getting your ship disintegrated. I outgun you and can outrun you if I feel like it. Kaajii noticed a secondary spike on the spectrum analyzer. They appeared to be calling home base. Or sending a message was more like it, since a radio wave at this distance would take nearly a year to reach earth.

Another salvo of particle beams hit Explorer II. Kaajii then cut away the rest of the shield generators of the larger ship. Next he proceeded to the points where the particle beams had come from and neatly cut out a section of the ship at each point.

Ok lady, this is your last chance. I’ve had about all of your games that I can stand. Kaajii said.

A small projectile left the Jerico. Kaajii dodged it easily as it went by. After dumping most of his fuel to space and setting the internal fuel tank replicator to automatic and the outlet pressure valve to automatic Kaajii turned the disintegrator beam to full power and the Jerico ceased to exist. His fuel tanks were once again full.

THREE

May 21, 3025 -- Blink ship Explorer II

Kaajii brought the ship to a point at which his radar was about halfway to its limits and the ship was perpendicular to the plane of the ecliptic. He was out near the orbit of Pluto. There were many, many objects to identify. He watched and waited for a few minutes then entered commands to have the computer identify the projected paths of the objects. Most were circular or elliptical. Those would be orbiting things. Most were probably space stations or satellites. He found one that was in what appeared to be a parabolic orbit. It was moving very fast.

As Kaajii watched the fast moving object went around the other side of the planet and then off in what was obviously a slingshot maneuver. This was where a ship used the gravitational pull of a planetary body to increase its own speed.

He set an intercept just behind the ship. He would follow it for a while and see where it was going. The path on a long-range star chart didn’t indicate any place that Kaajii knew. It was already travelling at .7 c when it disappeared off of his scope. This puzzled him for only a moment when he realized that they would have had to have had some sort of light speed capability to be ranging out past Deneb.

He then selected another target nearly an hour later that wasn’t elliptical or circular and followed it before it too disappeared. That made two ships in less than six hours. That was a pretty good clip for interplanetary travel. He found a much smaller ship and watched it accelerating. At .7 c it disappeared. Apparently they had to be going a certain speed before