Alcantaran 1: Alien Abduction (29 page)

The trio looked at one another and worry was written all over their faces.
 
As far away as the oncoming ship was, it probably couldn't detect them because they would be on the edge of the star from its view point.
 
By tomorrow they would be around the edge.
 
Could they risk continuing with the oxygen project?
 
What about the rockets?
 
They needed the fuel and they sure didn't want to lose the rockets, since that was going to be their lifeblood for fuel.
 
They decided to wait until morning to see if there was any change in the on-coming space ship.
 
If there was no change, they would finish gathering what oxygen they could in the morning.
 
They would recover the rockets and wouldn't send them out again.
 
If all the rockets did like the first two, they would have a full tank and then some.
 
If there was no change in the on-coming ship by tomorrow night, they would wait until the next day to retrieve the last rocket.
 
Tik would recall the remote detector and it should be back about the same time as the last rocket.
 
Whatever they had, they were going to leave as soon as the last rocket was secured.

Gus queried the computer and saw that the oxygen level was above the minimum level.
 
If they worked for three or fours hours tomorrow, they would be high up in the safe zone.
 
Nobody was hungry that night but they ate just to keep up their strength.
 
Ron and Gus didn't think they could sleep but went to bed anyway.
 
They were tired enough that as soon as the adrenaline wore off, they conked right out.
 
Tik didn't even go to bed.
 
She spent the night in a chair in front of the view screens and the remote detectors signals.
 
She cat napped on and off but she kept watching the growing threat.

The next morning, there had been no change in the approaching space ship so Ron and Gus ate and quickly returned to work.
 
Tik didn't want to leave the comm room so she stayed there to monitor the space ship and did research on the equipment in the room.
 
Ron and Gus pushed even harder than they had yesterday and by 10:00 when they quit, the oxygen was in the high safe zone.
 
They were through with the oxygen.
 
Gus raised Auntie and they prepared to start receiving returning rockets.
 
Ron told her to dump all of the fuel into her tanks as the rockets came back.
 
Auntie had spaced the returning rockets about 10 minutes apart.
 
That gave her time to secure the rocket and unload the fuel before the next one arrived.
 
In 50 minutes, all the rockets were on board and all but two unloaded.
 
Auntie's fuel tanks were full so she kept the extra fuel in the rockets.
 
Ron directed Gus to set Auntie back down on the asteroid but to move her right next to the silver deposit.
 
Tik called out coordinates and Gus set her down and put up the shield.
 
The deposits were just outside Auntie's rear door.

Tik stayed right where she had been since the detector picked up the space ship.
 
She was trying to find out more information about it but it was just too far away.
 
They knew that they were hidden from view by the star but they didn't want to be taken by surprise.
 
Ron and Gus decided to try mining some silver.
 
They climbed back into their space suits and took the miners outside.
 
Ron closed the lower cargo bay door and they just used the middle cargo bay.
 
They set the miners to use the lasers to cut chunks out of the silver and then to load it into the carts.
 
This didn't go nearly as fast as cutting ice.
 
There was a layer of rock covering the vein of silver and when the lasers cut into it, it crumbled into sand.
 
The rapid heating fractured the rock and then when the laser was through, the rapid cooling did even more.
 
The miners got to the silver and started working in earnest.
 
By the end of the day, there was only about half of a cart full between the two miners.
 
Ron and Gus took the miners inside and moved the silver into a lockable room on the side of the cargo bay.
 
It looked like they had between 2 1/2 to 3 cubic yards of silver.
 
Some of the silver still had chunks of rock clinging to it.
 
All of it would have to be smelted later and poured into smaller ingots to make it more saleable.
 
They secured the silver in the room and then the miners.
 
As soon as they were out of their space suits, they hurried to the comm room to find out the latest news, even though they knew that Tik would have let them know about any changes.
 
When they stepped into the room, Tik greeted them and showed them what she had on the space ship.
 
It wasn't big enough to be the mother ship but she couldn't tell anything else.
 
She was recalling the detector and would lose sight of the space ship sometime during the night.
 
The rocket would be back in the morning anyway.

Ron and Gus dragged Tik away from the view screens to the upper galley to get something to eat.
 
After they ate, Ron ordered her to bed.
 
She had been up so long that she was almost dead on her feet.
 
She protested but about two seconds after her head hit the pillow, she was out.

Ron and Gus stayed up a little longer discussing what they needed to do.

Gus told Ron, "I want to go back out to get some of the sand from the mining to dump in the conservatory.
 
If I have any extra time, I'll grab a little more silver."

Ron said, "I need to pick a destination where we can trade for some food.
 
I'll have Tik check the Bug's database in the morning and we'll pick a place to head for.
 
I also need to make a sweep of the ship to make sure everything is secured."

"Why don't you use one of the remote sensors and have Auntie do a scan?
 
She'll do it a lot faster and probably a lot more thoroughly," Gus suggested.

"Yeah, that sounds like a great idea.
 
I forget that we have a lot of modern conveniences and I don't have to do everything myself," Ron responded.
 
"Once we get under way, we need to start on that conservatory.
 
It will help with our oxygen and water purification if we can get some stuff growing in there again.
 
We need to make it pleasant enough for Tik to use it to stay healthy."

"Yeah, if we have a big pile of sand in there, I'm going to stretch out and lay on it.
 
I can feel the need since I haven't been around dust or dirt for several days now.
 
How is your diabetes doing?"

"Since I started wearing this bracelet, I haven't even had to use the healer unit.
 
Maybe there is something to the stories behind them.
 
I know I feel a lot better and have more energy than I've had in the last ten years," Ron said.

"Well, one last check on our unknown space ship and then I'm ready to hit the sand," Gus said as he started for the flight deck.

Ron followed and they saw that there was no change and nothing new about who the space ship might be.
 
They called it a night and went to bed.

They were up early and rushed into their last minute preparations.
 
Gus took both miners outside and hauled in three big loads of sand and rock.
 
He found a door on the conservatory that he could back the miners into and dumped it to one side of the door.
 
He made one more trip out to get what silver he could until Ron warned him that they needed to lift off to retrieve the rocket.
 
He hurried inside and secured the miners.
 
He left the silver in the carts and put some netting over it to make sure it stayed there.
 
He had just climbed out of his space suit when the warning came to prepare for take off.
 
He hurried and just made it to the flight deck where he settled into a chair as the count down to lift off began.

Ron had Auntie search what she could to make sure everything was secured.
 
He had her fly a remote sensor around all three cargo bays to check them out.
 
He and Tik looked at the data bank and decided to fly to Europaische in the Kita Kinabula galaxy.
 
The Bugs had been run out of there in the not too distant past, so they thought they might be nervous about following them there.
 
According to the database, they would be able to trade some of the silver there.
 
They were going to trade for food and get out of there pretty quickly.
 
They wanted to put some distance between themselves and the Bugs.
 
They plotted out a zig-zag pattern that doubled back on itself before it arrived at their intended destination.
 
They hoped all of the turns and changes would confuse the Bugs if they followed.

As soon as Gus was in the ship with the miners, Ron lifted off of the asteroid.
 
He noticed that Gus' digging for sand had covered up the silver.
 
You had to look awful close to even see that they had been there.
 
Ron retrieved the rocket first and then Tik retrieved the remote detector.

As Gus sat down and buckled his seat belts, Auntie fired her engines.
 
They were quickly picking up speed and as soon as they hit the threshold, they jumped to hyper-space.
 
They traveled for about four hours and then jumped back to regular space.
 
Ron turned Auntie to the starboard and they jumped to hyper-space again.
 
They stayed in hyper-space for eight hours this time.
 
It gave everybody time to get some sleep.
 
They jumped in and out of hyper-space changing directions each time.
 
Finally after the sixth jump they aimed for their destination of Europaische in the Kita Kinabula galaxy.
 
This jump would take ten days because they were leaving the galaxy that the super-giant blue star was in.
 
All the jumping had disrupted their schedule so the first night of the journey the trio slept like logs.
 
They slept in the next morning and got up to a leisurely breakfast.
 
Gus felt the need to go touch sand so he headed to the conservatory.
 
Tik joined him to get the UV rays.
 
Ron went to the lower comm room to check on things.

Gus took off his kilt and belts.
 
He buried himself up to his neck in the sand and gravel he had mined from the asteroid.
 
Tik sat nearby and couldn't stand the silence so she started a conversation.

"Gus, doesn't this place give you the creeps with all of the dead trees and bushes around here?"

"I haven't paid any attention.
 
This sand and gravel feel so good.
 
What do you think we should do?" Gus sighed.

"Well, I think Ron was right.
 
We need to take some pictures and then take samples, seal them up and store them in one of the empty rooms.
 
When we find someone really interested in the Alcantarans, we could sell or give them copies of the pictures and the samples," Tik said with a shudder.

"Can you get one of the remote sensors to fly in here and take pictures?
 
Could it start at one end and work to the other so we'd have a layout of everything in here?" Gus asked.

"Sure, that would be no problem.
 
As soon as I get through 'sun tanning' in here I'll get it started.
 
After it does a wide view, I'll have it do close ups of everything.
 
I wonder what we can do with the stuff we don't save," Tik replied in a brighter voice.

"I don't know.
 
Maybe Ron has some experience with things like this conservatory.
 
What will we put in here after we get everything cleaned up?"

"I'll have to look in the computer to see if it says.
 
If nothing else, we can get something at Europaische to get started.
 
I'd like to have seen this place when it was in its glory," Tik commented.

"Well, maybe we can make our own space.
 
That is, if we are going to be Traders and keep Auntie.
 
Do you think you'd like to do that?" Gus asked.

"I think I would but I'd like to do a few trades just to make sure we can pull it off." Tik said reflectively.
 
"I'm about done here, so why don't we go talk to Ron about this?"

They got up and Gus got dressed.
 
They stopped off at the electronics storeroom to get a remote sensor.
 
Tik carried it back to the conservatory and placed it inside.
 
She was going to program it when she got to the computer.

Ron checked everything about the flight that he could.
 
Everything seemed to be going according to schedule.
 
When he finished, he started looking around.
 
He sat down at the weapons console and checked it out.
 
He moved to the comm console and was looking at it when he noticed a button he had never seen before.
 
He queried the computer to find out what it was for.
 
The computer said it was to open the storage are for the personal voorwarp units.
 
Ron asked what the voorwarp units were and the computer gave a history of them.
 
25,000 years ago or whenever Auntie was being flown by the Alcantarans, they were the newest personal safety gadget.
 
They provided a small personal shield that was controlled by brain waves helped amplify sound waves and also acted as a translator.
 
The shield would also deploy if the person was attacked unexpectedly.
 
For anyone in the crew who was wearing another one, it boosted ESP transfer.
 
It made the transfer a lot clearer; traveled farther and instead of just transferring words, it would transfer the image or sense of the word.
 
An example would be; if you referred to a big cat, it could show an image of a lion or tiger if that was what you meant.