Alder's World Part One: Mass 17 (6 page)

“Soon enough for you?”
Alder yelped. But Fisher didn
’
t answer. He was barking orders at the bridge crew.
“
Shiri get out of there.” Alder
called to the science bay.
“
Get to cover. Come on. Inside the main pressure hull.” He
yelled at Elana who was already moving toward the door.

“The water
recyclers.”
Alder gestured as they emerged
into the empty hallway.
“
We
need shelter when the shock wave hits.”
Lights and sirens flared around them as Fisher declared an
emergency.

“Why
don
’
t we just frame
out?”
Elana asked as they dashed down the
hall.

“The fusion core is kept
off line so it doesn
’
t
interfere with the science kit. Fisher needs five minutes at
least.
”

“Has he got that
long?
”

They passed a viewing deck
where a couple was standing transfixed by the image of hell
erupting before them.
“
Get
into the recyclers.”
Alder bellowed at
them as they dashed by.

Confused, sleepy, half dressed crew
were popping out of the doors.

“Get inside the pressure
hull!
”
Alder ordered as they
passed through a bulkhead.

The spaces in the center of the dome
were steel and pipes, lacking the decoration of the outer rooms.
Turning a corner, Alder gave a code to a door which opened into a
white and steel room of humming tanks.

“Get
inside!
”
He ordered Elana
then turned back to the people milling in the outer ring.
“
Come on! Come on! He yelled from
the bulkhead. A few bodies scurried past him but most did not seem
to understand. The light coming from the viewing deck window had
turned white hot.
“
Just a few
seconds. Just a few seconds.”
He yelled
meaninglessly.

With the force of a thousand atomic
bombs, the shock wave crashed into the Duster, throwing Alder
backward into the interior of the ship. There were a thousand
sounds like screaming angels; glass shattered, steel whined, sirens
shrieked.

A woman in a white tee shirt and
panties slammed into the door frame Alder had just been thrown back
from. She grasped it with both hands, and sagged as if winded by
the blow.

Alder struggled to his
feet on the rocking deck. He was shouting at the woman but his
words were inaudible to himself over the roar. The
woman
’
s long, dark hair
rippled suddenly back from her head and her eyelids fluttered.
Somewhere behind her, the hull of the ship was breached. As the bow
wave passed, a new sound took over, the howling of the atmosphere
pouring out.

Lights flared over the door. The
automatic pressure sensors had detected the breach and were about
to slam the bulkheads shut.

Alder grasped a pipe on the wall and
reached for the woman. She had seen the light and was struggling
against the roaring wind to pull herself inside but the pulse of
air was stronger than she was and only a second later her arms were
pulled to full extension, her breasts perfectly outlined as the
wind pushed her thin shirt into her flesh. Their eyes met for an
infinite second. Alder could see a cold, fearless darkness inside
her. The bulkhead slammed down, forcing her fingers off their grip
and she was gone.

Alder dropped to the deck as the
howling stopped. His ears were singing with pain. Mercifully, the
lights failed a few seconds later and he was left to sob in the
dark.

Captain
Pilton stood in the middle of the bridge with his hands on his hips
and scowled. He
’
d hated the
bridge when he
’
d first been
introduced to it. It looked like some kind of orchestra pit with
him in the middle. His five Lieutenant commanders sat in a ring
around him, their support staff in a ring outside of that. Who put
the captain in the lowest point? He had to look up to see the main
screens over his head and the actual ports out into space were
three levels above him. Where was the grandeur? How was he supposed
to tower over his crew issuing commands?

After a few years, the genius of the
design began to sink in. The back side of every console, from his
Lieutenant commanders to the waste reprocessing manager two levels
up was a screen rolling data. The truth of space flight was that it
was seldom useful to actually look out into space but, being able
to see everything your bridge crew was working could save your
life.

“But where is
Alder?”
He asked gesturing at the empty
science bay chair. It and a few of the other science chairs were
the only empties in the otherwise busy room.

“We
don
’
t know.”
Tallen answered, tapping at the security
officer
’
s screen. All the
screens were lit, which was good. An hour before they had all been
dark.
“
We only have about
half our tracking online. I show that Elana had authorized use of a
room on level nine of the environment dome about ten minutes before
the attack.
”

Pilton shrugged off the
word
‘
attack
’
and glanced at
an external view of the environment dome. Like the rest of the ship
it appeared mostly intact except for some surface ruptures. There
were a few lights running, but none near the top. While Fisher
trying to take responsibility for the entire disaster, he deserved
a medal. With only seconds before the shock wave hit and no time to
bring the framing engine online, Fisher had pushed all the mobius
shields to full. The damage they
’
d taken was from their own shields flexing into the side of
the ship under the pressure wave. If they
hadn
’
t been on...well their
little space adventure would have come to an end.

“Which side of the dome
was Alder in?
”

“I
’
m sorry sir. It was
port cabin 11.
”

While the damage reports
were sketchy, coming in one at a time as the computers rebooted,
one thing was clear, very few people in port side cabins had
survived.
“
Okay. Do they have
power in the environment dome? Can anyone tell
me?
”

Tallen interrupted, an
engineer
’
s response.
“
Sir. We are fully enveloped in the
cloud. We must move the ship to a defensible
position...
”

Pilton waved his
hand.
“
I asked a question.
Does anyone know if they have power in the environment
dome?
”

“Yes sir.”
Engineer Rhye responded from her station.
“
The inner hull has power and
pressure on all decks.

“But
we
’
re out of contact.”
Com Tech Reilly piped in from another level
up.
“
There
’
s a primary
break. We
’
re getting backup
radio response only.
”

Pilton cursed.
“
I have to know where he is. Do we
have a tube running into the dome?
”

“It
’
s still there but
it
’
s not pressurized
sir.
”

“Damn. Okay, get me a
rescue team in suits.
”

“Sir!
”
Tallen stood up.
“
We have injured and stranded crew
all over the ship. We
’
re
registering vacuum outside of twenty-four
bulkheads....
”

“Yes, and
Alder
’
s the only one of us
whose shown any hint that he understands why.
I
’
m not moving this ship or
doing anything else until Alder tells me what his nanobots are
doing. They
’
ve eaten through
everything of ours that they
’
ve touched. Now that the cloud has exploded over us, I
can
’
t say that
I
’
m sure why we
haven
’
t been eaten too...” He
paused.
“
What
’
s the hull
temperature like?

“96 K
”
Someone responded.

“Why?”
Tallen asked.

“Have we not heard from
the science bay at all?
”

“Sorry
sir.
”

A glance at the monitors
showed that the science bay was still there but missing several
instruments and ominously dark.
“
And what
’
s the
temperature around us?”
The temperature
outside had been falling steadily since the initial fiery blast had
buried them in the cloud three hours before.

“128 K and still
falling.
”

“Sir. If I can
just...
”

“Shhhh.” Pilton waved a
hand at Tallen.
“
Alder said
that heat sped the action of the nanobots. Maybe heat attracts them
as well.
”

He turned on Rhye.
“
Turn it off. Turn it all
off.
”

“Sir?
”

“I want to hull of the
ship to cool at the same rate as the space around
us.
”

“So you want me to put the
reactor in standby and go to quiet
running?
”

“No. I want you to turn it
off; all of it. I want two things running on this ship; the
shields, and a radio to the rescue crew in the environment
dome.
”

“But sir.
We
’
ll be unable to
defend...
”

“I have to tell you
Shalim.”
Pilton said to Tallen.
“
I
’
m not very afraid of alien marines, or whole planets that
maliciously blow up if you turn a sensor on them, but
I
’
m pretty convinced that
Alder
’
s Technoprey killed
Martin and the others because they were warm. So were the scouts we
sent into the cloud. I understand about hull breeches, and injured
crew. I don
’
t understand
Technoprey. Turn off the environment, turn off the water. Turn it
all off but the shields and then get me
Alder.
”

It was
strange to be isolated in the Environment Dome. Although they knew
the rest of the ship was still with them, the communications break
down and thick cloud of dust and ash swirling outside made it feel
as if they were a tiny mountain of light and air swimming in the
void. Standing at an observation port staring into the gloom to
where he knew the command pod was barely two hundred meters away,
Alder felt suddenly very sad for the world carrying turtle of
Indian myth. How strange to find yourself swimming endlessly in the
sea of space. Did it know there was a world of life and heat on its
back or was it forced to face forever forward into the void,
swimming alone?

His thoughts turned
suddenly to Micki Span, a girl from his elementary school in Darver
Town on Make Make where he
’
d
lived for several years as a child.
“
Well, I just hope
it
’
s a boy turtle.”
She
’
d said
in the hall after a lesson about Terran religions.

“Why is that?”
Young Alder had asked naively.

Micki Span had rolled her
eyes and gestured expansively.
“
Because, if it
’
s a
girl, it
’
s only a matter of
time before some bloke comes along and tries to climb her back.
That won
’
t be so good for the
earthlings will it?
”

Alder smiled at the memory. His ears
had burned as the children around him laughed at what seemed to ten
year olds like a very funny joke.

“Commander?”
Lieutenant Harshaw, an environmental
Tech
’
s voice broke his
revere. She had slipped into the room behind him.

“Yes, Allayah?” As third
in command of the Duster behind Pilton and the Chief Executive
Officer, it was not surprising that Alder was the ranking officer
in the dome when the shock wave hit. Nor was it surprising that the
survivors in the dome had immediately and amicably set up shop
under him in the three hours since the blast.
They
’
d been through a lot
together over the years and worked well together under any
stress.