HADRON Resurgent Read online

  A worker turned. “Your Majesty, we’ve broken through.”

  Jasper replied, “OK. Have everyone stay back. We’re going in there alone.”

  The worker bowed before turning to relay the order.

  Jasper flipped on the lights on his helmet before dropping through the opening in the hull. His boots clanked as they came in contact with the metal grating that covered the floor.

  Mace followed after. The two stood, looking around a room covered with various tools, pipes, and other maintenance materials.

  Mace said, “What’s the first thing you noticed?”

  “Hand tools. Nothing I recognize, but they’re definitely tools.”

  Mace looked up at the ceiling and over at a chair. “Given the height of this room, I’d say we might be looking at aliens that were our size.”

  Jasper walked over to a corner of the room, pulling a box away from what looked like a bunk. A dusty, mummified body lay on a bed.

  “Well, they definitely ain’t us. Look at that v-shaped head and those pointed shoulders.”

  Mace nodded. “The four arms is a dead giveaway too.”

  Jasper winced. “This must have been one ugly sucker. Look at those eye sockets… eight eyes. Four on each of those… head posts. Looks like some kind of weird octopus bug.”

  Mace laughed. “Quadropus. It only has four arms.”

  “If you’re being picky about it, it has two legs, too. That makes it a hexapus bug.”

  Mace smiled. “I stand corrected.”

  Jasper poked at the mummified carcass. “Look at those skinny, double-jointed legs. You know these other aliens, including my Targarians, are all strange looking, but this one definitely wins the weird prize.”

  Jasper turned, walking to a workbench. “This looks like a grease gun. And this a set of wrenches. We have a hammer. A drill-press over here. Various nuts and bolts. A vise. Clamps. I have no idea what that is. Or that.”

  Mace said, “Come on. Let’s go explore.”

  “Wait. Check out this closet. Here, I found its uniform or whatever. Got an insignia on the shoulder. And look at those weird boots. Hold on…”

  Jasper walked back to the mummy, pulling a sheet back from its feet. “Hooves… the thing had hooves.”

  Mace stood at the door that led out of the room. “Hmm. Not sure how this opens. There’s no knob or handle to grab. And no sign of a sensor.”

  Jasper gently moved him to the side. “Let me have a look.”

  A heavy boot was raised and jammed hard into the center of the door. The thin metal crunched and bent. A second kick pulled the bottom half from its frame. Three steps back and a short run with a shoulder saw the sliding door pulled free, banging loudly as it struck a wall on the far side of a hallway. A slow rush of stale air moved past them.

  Mace said, “That works. Can’t believe this ship had any seal after this length of time.”

  Jasper began to walk toward the farthest end of the hall. “It was probably buried for most of that.”

  Mace shrugged. “I guess. That’s more of a mystery for Jeff anyway. Speaking of Jeff, would you want to send a ship to bring him out here? We might need him, depending what we run into.”

  Jasper raised his arm. “Captain, order a Dauntless to proceed to Earth. I’d like Jeff Moskowitz to join us. Oh, and have Gnaga Klept come as well.”

  The captain’s image bowed. “Consider it done, Sire.”

  Jasper stopped at an open doorway. “We have a desk and chair. And I’d say that looks like some sort of computer interface on top. The colored touch panels might just be a keyboard.”

  “Possibly.”

  A drawer was opened. “Hmm. File cabinets.”

  Mace pulled a translucent sheet from a holding sleeve. “Look at this. The colors on that desktop, they’re arranged on this page. You think their alphabet was color based?”

  Jasper shrugged. “Now you’re definitely talking Doc Jeff stuff.”

  Mace said, “Yeah, let’s keep moving. This is all the stuff that will have to be studied. What I’d like to see is the gatrellium that was detected.”

  Jasper raised his arm turning on his sensors. “I show two hundred meters in that direction and sixty meters down.”

  Mace asked, “How big is this ship?”

  Jasper said, “What were you doing the whole time we were watching them dig? Were you not paying attention?”

  Mace laughed. “I was. Guess I just missed that.”

  Jasper gave his best straight face. “Well, start paying attention. This stuff is serious.”

  Mace nodded. “I will.”

  Jasper pushed a scan diagram to Mace’s comm. “Main section’s about three hundred meters long. It’s eighty meters high by ninety meters wide. Antennae jut out from about every surface but the back. That’s where we’re headed.”

  Mace asked, “How do you know it’s the back?”

  Jasper replied, “Because it looks like the back. Hello? Earth to Hardy… come in.”

  A turned corner led to a steep stairwell. Jasper slipped on the second step, almost losing his balance.

  “Well, this is a hazard. Wonder who approved the permitting on this thing?”

  Mace said, “Steps might be narrower because of their hoofed feet.”

  Jasper shook his head. “Can you image the noise a herd of those things would make coming down the hall? Don’t know if I could sleep on a ship like this.”

  “Maybe they’re quieter when they have socks on.”

  Jasper turned back with a scowl. “Socks? Now you’re just being Johnny-stupid.”

  The adventure continued to a lower deck, and then on toward the detected gatrellium. They passed several bulkheads, Jasper commenting on the adequate doorway height, something the Revelation was lacking. A final corner turned into a docking bay. A small ship sat in the center of the bay area. Huge exterior doors covered the far wall.

  Mace said, “That little ship is the source. The sensors say it’s the coating on its exterior. No bulk gatrellium.”

  Jasper scowled. “Why would you cover a ship with that stuff?”

  Mace shrugged. “That’s why we need Jeff and Gnaga here.”

  A comm came in to Jasper. “Sire, the Human Doctor and the Kaachi have arrived.”

  Jasper nodded. “Good. We’ll be up in a few minutes to fetch them. Have them standing by the hole.”

  Shortly after, the foursome returned to the hangar. “This is it, Doc. All we know is it has a gatrellium coating on the outside.”

  Jeff leaned in as he looked over the data on his holo-display. “Interesting … there appear to be circuit traces running below the surface. Can we open it up?”

  Mace replied, “Uh, sure. Let me get the keys.”

  Jeff looked on, waiting.

  Mace gestured toward the craft. “There aren’t any keys, Doc. You want in, you’ll have to figure it out.”

  Gnaga tapped on the hull with his gloves. “It appears to be solid. I don’t see any seams. Perhaps it’s not a vessel to be gotten into.”

  Jasper called over to the others. “I have more of those touch consoles over here. They have the same color-coding as that desk we saw. Tell you what, Doc, you and Mr. Klept work on getting that ship open. Mr. Hardy and I will continue with checking this place out.”

  Jeff nodded as he turned back to look at the small ship. Mace joined Jasper as they walked toward the door to the hall.

  Jasper said, “Let’s see if we can find an armory. They must have had weapons.”

  “What if it was just a research vessel?”

  Jasper laughed. “Yeah well, you tell me we’d send out a ship of an official kind without some level of protection. If these were explorers, it doesn’t do them much good to be dead explorers, now does it?”

  Mace agreed. “I suppose that’s right.”

  The search brought the two Humans to a storeroom with an open door. Four mummified alien bodies lay on the floor. Each wore a uniform and each was laid neatly in
a row.

  Jasper frowned. “They were dead and then brought here.”

  Mace nodded. “And they look emaciated like the one in the maintenance room. If they crashed here, they probably starved to death.”

  Jasper scowled. “We know what that’s like. Not how I’d like to go out.”

  Mace let out a sigh as he thought back to the tragic events that had sent Earth into a sudden collapse.

  Jasper said, “I don’t think I ever said it, but I’m truly grateful that the lot of you came along. I have no doubt I’d have been dead within the first six months of all that.”

  Jasper chuckled.

  Mace asked, “What?”

  Jasper shook his head. “Was just thinking. My two nephews probably would have killed and eaten me just to stay alive. And I’d probably have volunteered myself for that, even though they wouldn’t have waited for permission.”

  “They’re still in Ronceverte, right?”

  Jasper nodded. “Last I checked, they had joined Stark’s army. Couldn’t say if they’re alive or dead now. And they don’t seem to be interested in contacting me. To them, I was an alien sympathizer for not backing his cause.”

  Mace laughed. “You? How’d they come to that conclusion?”

  Jasper shrugged. “Who knows? Probably just Stark propaganda. They weren’t all that bright anyway.”

  The search continued, with dozens of doors being kicked in. Storage, more bunks, and science labs were found, many with long dead animal and biological specimens in glass jars. After the investigation of a small dining facility, a door was kicked in by the king of the Targarians. Rows of what appeared to be weapons lined the far wall.

  Jasper grinned. “Now that’s what I was looking for.”

  The first of a dozen weapons was pulled from the rack, a long slender tube with a grip handle on one end and multi-ringed power head of sorts on the other.

  Jasper said, “Lightweight. Grip’s a little off, but their hands were a different size than ours.”

  Jasper held it at arm’s length, aimed at a side wall.

  Mace said, “Better be careful with—”

  The weapon fired. A concussion rocked the small room, almost knocking Mace from his feet. The targeted wall was severely dented, but didn’t fail.

  Mace steadied himself before grabbing Jasper’s outstretched arm. “Whoa there, Tex. Let’s not do that again.”

  Jasper replied, “Not even sure what I did. It just kinda went off.”

  Mace said, “Well, just the same. Let’s put it down until we have that figured out. I’d rather us not kill ourselves if possible.”

  Jasper tilted his head. “Fourteen thousand years and it still has a charge. One heck of a power cell.”

  Inspection of the room yielded two other weapons: a smaller, single-handed version of the concussion gun, and what looked like a grenade, likely with similar powers.

  Jasper took a grenade and attached it to a clip on his battlesuit beltline.

  Mace shook his head. “You sure you want to carry that around? If that goes off strapped to your hip I doubt that suit will save you.”

  Jasper continued to look around the room. “It won’t go off.”

  The next room they entered was for power generation. Four large boxy items sat in the center of the room. Each had a single display screen on the side. The fourth screen had a tiny green flashing light.

  Mace looked at Jasper. “You see what I see?”

  Jasper nodded. “Ship must still have power. Let’s flip it on and see what happens.”

  Mace put his arm out as Jasper began to step forward. “How about we wait for Jeff and Gnaga on this one.”

  Mace opened a comm. “Doc, could you and Mr. Klept come up here? We think we’ve found the generation room, and it looks like there may still be power. We’re two decks up and down the hall to your left.”

  Jeff replied, “Be right up.”

  The one-time Human scientist looked over the display. “Only one thing to do… press the button.”

  Jasper said, “That’s what I was gonna do.”

  The button was pressed and the display lit up with a short message written in a color coded alphabet. The message flashed five times before the display shut down, leaving the single flashing green light.

  Jeff said, “Likely some kind of warning. We’ll be able to make more progress when we have a lock on the language.”

  Mace replied, “We don’t have any audio to listen to. How are we supposed to decipher their writing?”

  Jeff pointed at writing on the wall. “I suggest we walk around this ship, snapping images of the writing. The Galactic Union app does a good job at recognition of characters. Doesn’t all have to be audio or video.”

  The next half hour was spent moving from one room to another. Everywhere that had writing was entered into the language app. The first translated words began to appear.

  Jeff came over the comm. “We’re showing success. Sixteen words is a good start. Looks like their alphabet has forty two of those colored characters.”

  Jasper turned a corner. “Jackpot. I have the bridge. I see six, no… seven crew stations. And look at those crappy chairs that’s like a single bar you had to sit on. Can’t imagine that being comfortable during a long flight.”

  “They have different bodies than we do,” said Mace. “That might be what they liked.”

  Jasper scowled. “Maybe, if you were a giant parakeet or something and liked a perch.”

  Mace said, “Doc, I found a manual of sorts. Loads of writing, and images.”

  Jeff replied, “Excellent. Get it scanned in. Having images is key to speeding this up.”

  For ten minutes, Mace flipped through the manual. Ultra thin metallic pages held the colored text and images. Two minutes after completion, the language decoder kicked into high gear.

  Jeff said, “Up to four hundred words now. Won’t be long.”

  Jasper looked over a crewman’s console. “This has to be environmental. And this one is ship’s power. It has another one of those green lights. I peg this one as nav.”

  Jeff said, “Snap an image and speak into the app if you’re positive. Every little bit helps.”

  Gnaga Klept joined the conversation. “I’ve found the infirmary. I have six bodies lying on tables and one slumped over a console from one of those perches. Their hooves appear to have a claw on back that they hook onto it.”

  Jeff said, “I think that manual did the trick, Mr. Hardy. We’re at 65 percent and rising rapidly. I think we should head back the generator room.”

  The four stood looking at the display as Jeff again pressed the button. The message again flashed five times before turning off.

  Jeff looked at his holo-display. “It says ‘Hydrogen Reserve Depleted.’”

  Jasper grinned. “We got hydrogen. Let’s pump some in.”

  Jasper opened a comm. “Major Toliok, as you uncover that exterior, tell me if you find any feed-in couplings or valves.”

  Jeff said, “We have a full lock on their language. If you hold your holo-display up in front of any of those color symbols you should see a translation. Or, if you prefer, route it directly to your helmet display.”

  The major replied, “We have a fueling port, Your Highness.”

  Jasper replied, “Can we connect to it? Pass the information to our engineering team and then let me know.”

  Jasper asked, “You sure that’s hydrogen they had, Doc?”

  Jeff nodded. “Yes.”

  Jasper said, “Major, when the team says they can connect, have them pump it a few hundred kilograms worth of H for us.”

  Jeff looked at Jasper’s belt. “What do you have there?”

  Jasper replied, “We think it’s a grenade. I’m gonna have my boys look at it when I’m back aboard.”

  Mace gestured toward the device. “I told him he’s crazy for carrying it around. We found a small armory. He picked up a weapon and it went off. Practically knocked down a wall.”


  Jasper tilted his head back. “Hmm. Excellent idea, Mr. Hardy.”

  Jasper turned and left the room.

  Jeff asked, “Where’s he going?”

  Mace replied, “Haven’t a clue. Suppose I should go after him?”

  Seconds later a rumble could be felt. Mace raced out of the room and down the hall. After transiting two flights of stairs with single hops, he came into the hallway where a smiling Jasper Collins stood with a concussion weapon in his hand.

  “This is great!”

  Mace asked, “What are you doing?”

  “This thing works great as a door opener! Check this out.”

  Jasper held the weapon at arm’s length, aiming at a nearby door. The blast was almost instantaneous. The result was a door blown completely from its frame.

  Jasper grinned. “No more kicking in.”

  Jeff came over the comm. “We have hydrogen. Generators are coming online.”

  Seconds later, all the doors in the hallway slid open.

  Jasper snarled. “Crap, that takes all the fun out of it.”

  Mace patted him on the back. “Come on, I’m sure there’ll be other things to destroy. Let’s get back to the doc.”

  Chapter 9

  *

  With the primary generator restarted, the ship began to come to life. Hallways lit, consoles showed a variety of the colored patterns. After a short investigation, Jeff Moskowitz called up the ship’s logs, including a video by its last living crewman, the maintenance worker Mace and Jasper had originally found. Jeff enabled the log as the others stood and watched.

  This is Xavien. I’m the last alive. The others are all gone. If you’re watching this, you know about the sabotage and the ejection of our captain and the stealing of the shuttle. The fools thought they could return home in that ship. The fuel will only take them a light year. The rift we traveled through is at least two. They doomed us all to die on this planet. A planet we had long searched for. A planet covered with vast stores of diamond. Unfortunately for us, it is a commodity that is worthless out in the dead of space.

  This planet is lifeless, its atmosphere toxic and thin, its temperatures unbearable without our suits, and even with suits for only a short time. Our emergency capsule sits useless in the bay. Our wormhole generator is destroyed, taking with it any chance for us to send for help. Our food stores have run out, along with our fuel. The reserves we had were stolen or spaced before the crash.