Dreams among Stars (8 page)

Only with some resistance Rolf allowed me to put the glasses on him and when the assistants voice resounded in his head he gave off a startled sound and nearly whipped the glasses off.

I let him have some time in which he had a talk with his new companion and he was looking at me with a bewildered look every now and then, after a while he decided to christen his glasses with the name “thing” for now.

“
Thing, close the visor!” With that we both were finally completely ready for our mission. I checked the radio link between our suits and then turned toward the real airlock.
 

When it whizzed open I was on one hand excited to finally be able to witness the ship from the outside and on the other hand dreaded the findings we would make on this mission.

Hopefully the ship was not damaged beyond recovery!

The airlock consisted of a tunnel leading to the outside and a number of intermediary doors, which in case of a breach would hermetically seal off the airlock.

Rolf followed closely behind me, it was too narrow to walk side by side.

Arriving at the outside door the nearest intermediary door automatically hissed shut and the air in the room was pumped back into the ship.

Should the exit open with too much air in the room the surge would brutally hurdle us into space.

Just one of the many possibilities to lose ones life on an outside mission.

I calmed Rolf who was looking around with a haunted look on his face. “Just follow my example and you will be fine.” With that the exit slid open and the little remaining air escaped as a light breeze.

I fastened a support rope to my suit and carefully moved through the exit.

Only after I thoroughly had checked the functionality of my boots anchoring feature I dared to release the rope.

Rolf also had fastened himself to a rope and was joining me hesitantly.

The stars reflected on his otherwise dark visor.

Right then I realized the momentousness of our situation.

This hull below our feet, this gigantic ship was everything keeping us alive, we were at one of the most hostile places the universe held in store for creatures like us insignificant humans.

I explained to Rolf how the boots anchoring worked, it was a combined system of magnets and hauling ropes that automatically anchored themselves on the ships hull.

It even was possible to aim at locations a 20 meters away to move around quickly on the hull.

His boots were working flawlessly as well, so we pushed the two ropes back into the airlock and watched it slide shut and seal itself off again.

The main computer had traced the location of a working data connection on the outer hull and stored it on my maps. It was finding a working connection to one of the maintenance centers and connecting both networks, which were the difficult parts of this mission.

There were multiple spots at which a connection to the maintenance center at C 3 II were possible.

Carefully I moved forward, but after a short period Rolf became boisterous.

He circled me with leaps and bounds and more than once he stressed the whole length of his boots hauling ropes, when I had to push myelf away from the hull to catch one of his ropes with my hands my thread of patience snapped.

“
Now stop jumping about like a toddler. Don’t you understand that there won’t be any rescue if you lose the ground?”
 

I was unable to see his face but his voice was filled with mischief, he was giddy from the experiences “But you are here to watch out for me. It is so fantastic out here, just like I had imagined from the tales!”

This was so confusing, for me my training had just been a month ago and for this lad our experiences were a part from his ancestors history.

When Marple finally displayed our target with a blinking red light I was relieved. I sent the coordinates to Rolf and closed in.

At first sight everything was looking good, but the terminal located here, was not responding to any of my tries to bring it back to life. A quick check with a testing device revealed that the connections at this spot were completely dead.

We were located at the lower end of a circular route along the possible locations we had a chance of finding a working connection at and I decided to move counter clockwise to the next possible spot.

There the terminal had been properly blasted away and a queasy feeling was crawling up on me.

At the next location a strong sense of déjà vu hit me and everything around me suddenly seemed very familiar.

I examined the hull more closely and there it was.

On its bracing the huge letters TRB-19 were displayed.

Automatically I detached the the sensor, then I turned to Rolf and thrust it into his hands.

“
Don’t lose it, these sensors have to be periodically replaced. Remember how to do it and pay special attention to this one, it is especially important!”
 

Haltingly Rolf accepted it, with a few short movements I drew a fastening rope from his suit and wrapped it around TRB-19, then we moved along to the next checkpoint, as the lines here were also completely dead.

Its said third time is the charm, for us it was four. The terminal located at this spot greeted me with the status screen I was desiring so much and indeed was connected to the main computer in segment C 3 II.

I connected the data cable and anchored it directly beside the connection, so it would be safely secured.

Then I showed Rolf how to fasten the cable on the ships hull and slowly we were making way to the connecting spot of the waking areas main computer. Quickly Rolf had grasped how to apply the brackets and was directly behind me tightening the cable to the hull.

The mundane work nearly had me forgetting that I was moving through deep space only protected by a much too thin suit.

Anytime this thought surfaced again I sidetracked it with lecturing Rolf about the different structures attached to the ships hull. Right when I was droning on about sensor redundancy and why it was so important to plan the maintenance cycles in a way that not all devices would need to be checked or replaced all at once we were arriving at the connection point.

Though the main computer had been able to trace the lines functionality to this location, there was no terminal in place. Nevertheless I connected the data cable and made sure it was anchored safely. Then I hurried back to the terminal we just came from.

I was so eager that I pushed away from the hull and assisted by the boots whipping cables I measured the distance with huge steps.

During this I miscalculated a jump and nearly got too far away, to Rolf’s luck as right when my ropes hooks found purchase he floated past me.

I grabbed one of his his boots and pulled Rolf along with me.

“
We have to be much more careful.” I said hoarsely. “When your people start with outside missions you should fasten safety bonds to each other.”
 

Anyhow the terminals display was much more important now.

I rejoiced when I detected that a connection was in place.

Complete success on my first mission, even if I would meet my death now, at least my successor would have complete access to the ships status.

Rolf said “Your cheers do mean that you accomplished your goal? Will you keep your promise?”

To all intents and purposes I longed to get to the maintenance center at C 3 II, luckily the folks of Rolf’s tribe were familiar with the coordinate system.

“
Rolf, are your people also located at segment C 3 in section 2?” I met his kin at segment C 4 at section 3, so two habitats away from there, but maybe his tribe was spread out farther.
 

“
Sorry Helen, but our tribes are organized in small groups, still we keep closely in touch. I suggest you return with me and after you helped us we take care of you reaching your desired location.”
 

As I had given my word I agreed.

Marple and Thing displayed the location of the nearest airlock leading back to Rolf’s tribe and we set off.

Unassertive Rolf asked “This sensor” he touched TRB-19 “what makes it so special?” Intrinsically I didn’t want to reply to that question, since it was such a disconcerting mystery to me, nonetheless eventually I replied “It is like this, since I wakened I have these strange dreams. Dreams in which I am part of the ship itself. In one of these dreams I was TRB-19 and felt its death - well his malfunctioning through a much too long service time.” I only heard a Oh! From Rolf and then silence, as we moved along.

After a while Rolf had made up a speech “You are not the first with such strange dreams, the first case that I know about happened a hundred years ago. It was a boy child of the Irimani, which like most people enjoy the Benefactors
protection.
People started to believe in what the boy was telling, as the Benefactor could not have that happen the boy was taken captive. Since then everyone receiving such dreams is being pursued by the Benefactors troops. Our tribe is called Dargye and we belong to the people called The open Eyes, it is our custom to venerate those born with this gift, because it is our belief those are messengers of the ship.”
 

I just had to find out more about the social situation aboard, it was extremely evident that the populace had developed in a completely unpredicted direction.

After arriving at the airlock I had Rolf exercise how to find remotely controllable components with Things help.

“
I feel like a demigod!” he laughed as the airlock zipped open.
 

We entered and I returned “But much too mortal, I had to find out on my way through the ship.”

After the airlock had sealed and air pressure was stabilizing I felt my pent-up tension falling off. A bit larking I urged Rolf to hurry up, but he reminded me about the Benefactors soldiers.

As this was a different airlock I checked on the fabber, it was worn out like the other, but it was stocked with a much greater amount of construction materials.

It was a task requiring great diligence to get all the ships fabbers back in working condition, to then proceed and get the ship back into a better shape.

As we left the airlocks antechamber only a dark cave greeted us.

Rolf purposefully moved toward one of the walls, only to halt on the way, start laughing and then speaking up “Thing, activate the lights” to which the cave softly shone up.

I really liked the earthy smell and felt as protected below the thick layer of earth as I hadn’t felt for a long time now.

We had been outside a good six hours and the dangerous work now took its toll on us.

Tiredly we had a small meal from my provisions, sadly the Dargye did not store food supplies with the hills, which Rolf regretted even more after he finally brought himself to take a bite from the stripe of synthetic fare.

Suddenly his face lightened up and he examined the wall around the entrance tunnel, with a triumphing yell he removed a stone from an opening and retrieved a clay bottle.

With the elated swagger of a successful hunter he returned to me, took a gulp from the bottle and then offered it to me.

I carefully smelled it and a fruity scent filled my nostrils.

After a careful sip I drank greedily.

“
Steady! This is pretty strong stuff.” Rolf pulled the bottle away from me and I suddenly had the urge to throw my arms around him. I saw his face floating hugely before my eyes, then everything around me faded away in a blur.
 

I came my senses with a hefty hangover sending resounding noises through my head, the try to clear my head by shaking it was punished with a stinging pain. My moaning brought Rolf into the scene, whose voice had my ears ringing. “I am truly sorry our fruit liquor is… a bit on the heavy side.” This was a massive understatement, but I also attributed the strong impact to the fact that I had to live as a teetotaler the 2 years before my cryogenic sleep.

Throatily I replied “Forget about it, but speak low please yes? Oh man, how long was I gone for?” “Only the night, its early morning, a time as good as any other to be on our way.”

I silently kept swearing to myself “Our glasses would have given us and advantage in the dark.” He smiled calmingly “Well if it is not safe outside, we just stay here until evening. We can both learn more than enough from each other.” Did he mean that suggestively? My head pounded and I was cranky. “No time for jokes, this isn’t a game, lets check if we can go outside.”

I rummaged through my backpack and found a painkiller which I swallowed.

After a short time it had worked its miracle.

“
Much better!” I sighed with relief and then asked Rolf “You know what a gun is?” With a factitious look he replied “What? Do you think we are living in the Stone Age? Hey don’t look so dourly, just making fun. Well very rarely we are able to activate one of the entertainment devices and are able to watch some of the old movies from earth and there are even some taped on the ship.” With a sincere look he unexpectedly asks me “The earth… the Benefactor is spreading that it is just a fabrication.”
 

His questioning look tells me what it is he wants to hear from me and I bent to him and touched his upper arm, while telling him “As truly as I am here with you right now earth exists. Even as it is several light-years behind now, I have been born and grown up there.”

My words obviously fill him with confidence, with verve he gets to his feet and reaches down to help me up. “So why did you want to know if I knew what a gun is?” he asks and I hesitate for a moment before taking one of my pistols from its holster.

After setting it on stun I hand it over to him. “Be careful with it. Look here is the trigger, its basically as in the movies, you hold it this way, locate the target here with the notch and then fire. Try it out”

On top of the small table we were sitting at last night I put 2 compact lumps of earth lacking any better targets and demonstrate the weapons use.