Far From Home: The Complete Series (47 page)

“I believe the ship would withstand a corrective procedure. Once that is completed, we can disembark for the surface,” Praror offered.

“If you’re sure,” King said.

Praror smiled, his whiskers lifting. “Of course.”

“It’s going to be a while till we can get those engines back up and running, otherwise we wouldn’t have to do it this way,” Greene said.

“As I said, I’m sure this vessel can take the strain,” Praror said.

Jessica shifted the display to show an area ten miles east of the settlement. What appeared to be a big, black square from orbit was in fact a jet black pyramid.

“I gotta get down there,” King whispered, too low for any of the others to hear.

Another black pyramid. Another mystery. Another bread crumb left behind by an ancient race. Where would the breadcrumbs lead?

* * *

Praror’s ship rattled around them, but the Krinuan had been correct. Both ships held together. The effort of lifting the
Warrior
high enough for it to be out of danger put considerable strain on the Naxor ship, but not so much as to cause alarm.

“And decrease thrust,” Praror ordered. The helmsman complied by pulling back on the engines and bringing the two conjoined ships to a halt.

“High orbit obtained.”

“So, Captain King, what is your plan? I assume you’ll have someone aboard the
Warrior
?”

Jessica shook her head. “We’ll head down to the surface first, there’s no rush in getting the
Warrior
back up and running. It’s out of danger, which will do until we get back. There’s a lot to study there.”

Now that she’d mentioned it, Jess felt conscious of the deadly weaponry stored in the
Warrior
’s hold. Was it wise to give such technology to the Krinuans? But how could they hide it?

It was something she knew she’d have to decide upon, but not now.

“We’ll take one of the shuttles,” Praror said. He led them off the bridge to the small cargo bay in the belly of the Naxor ship. Thankfully, Praror had had the foresight to have several Krinuan shuttle craft fitted there.

King could only think of the pyramid. There might be survivors down there, and if so, great, but… she couldn’t get the artefact out of her mind.

“Let’s do this,” Hawk said.

* * *

The emergency shelters stored in all Union ships had stood the test of time. Though they were corroded and had seen better days, the simple box shaped huts constructed from panels of reinforced aluminium still stood strong. There were twenty or so in total.

“Weapons at the ready, just to be on the safe side,” King ordered.

They fanned out, peering inside each shelter. The place was silent except for the eerie whistle of the wind through the rocky outcroppings.

We’ve gone from a ghost ship to a ghost town
, Jessica thought. She kicked the remains of a fire with her foot.

“Someone’s here at least. This fire looks new. Maybe a couple of days old.”

Commander Greene lifted some clothing hung out on a wooden rack to dry. “Looks like it was laundry day not so long ago,” he quipped.

Hawk chuckled.

King peered about. “Signs of life, but no life,” she said.

“Cryptic . . .” Hawk said. “Like it.”

Praror’s voice broke sharp and to the point. “We have company.”

They followed his gaze. Above them, at the edge of a boulder at least fifty feet high stood a man with a long white beard. He observed them in silence, one hand holding a staff and the other, some kind of device.

Jessica sensed Del tense up, his hand flexing around his shooter. She shot him a look that said, “at ease.” He nodded and relaxed a bit.

Hawk stepped forward, his arms outspread. “Hey. Nice to meet yuh. We don’t mean yuh any harm.”

The old man looked from one to the other. He was thin, but not without muscle. King knew from the look of him he possessed of a kind of wiry strength. The kind that comes from hard living. Survival. He looked to be sixty, if not seventy years old. But he had the body of a forty-year-old man. His skin was dark from the sun, and his face weathered and wrinkled like old leather beneath the thick beard.

“I am Captain Jessica King of the starship
Defiant
. Are you a member of the
Warrior
’s crew?”

The old man’s eyes widened slightly, then he turned on his heels and disappeared.

“What the—?” Hawk spat, stepping back to try and get a view of the top of the rock.

“Hawk,” Jessica said as the old man appeared to their right. Now she could see that he held an old fashioned design of communicator in his hand. He wore torn rags for clothing, tied at his waist.

He regarded them all with his small, dark eyes.

“Are you from the
Warrior
?”

The old man nodded his head slowly. “Yes.”

He looked up at the sky, as if he could see past the rich blue to where his ship floated in orbit.

“And the others?” King asked him.

“Dead. I am the last,” the old man said. He tucked the staff under his armpit then offered his hand. “Captain Hal Dolarhyde, last surviving crewmember of the
Warrior
.”

10.

He offered them water but they declined. Dolarhyde shrugged and sipped from a beat up old cup. He wiped the runoff from his beard.

“So what happened here?” Greene asked him.

Captain Dolarhyde sat down on an upturned crate with a sigh. “Old age. Accidents. A couple died from diseases. We had a handful of people, a year after we came down here… they left for the mountains. I never saw them again,” he said sadly.

“How long have you been on your own, Captain?” King asked him.

He looked at her. “Too long.”

“I’m sorry,” Jess said. “And the communicator?”

Dolarhyde looked down at the device. He laughed. It was not the laughter of a madman, but a man caught off guard. “Doesn’t work. Hasn’t for years. I just… carry things sometimes, I… I forget why.”

He tossed it to the side. It clattered in the dry soil.

“Is this planet inhabited?” Greene asked him.

“Apart from some primitive creatures, no. We used to hunt the herbivores, but I’ve grown too old for that. Besides, my rifle finally died on me. I may look like Robinson Crusoe, but I’m not about ready to start fashioning spears just yet,” Dolarhyde said. Again, he laughed. “No, these days I’m a vegetarian. The animals stay away from me, and I don’t hunt them anymore. Seems a pretty fair deal to me.”

“We’ve seen some hardship ourselves,” King said.

“Been on this side long?” Dolarhyde asked her.

“A while. Not as long as yourself though, Captain. Do you have any idea how you ended up here? On this side, as you put it? Your log mentioned something about a sinkhole…” King said.

Dolarhyde looked up. “So she’s still up there, huh?”

“Barely. She was just about ready to break up in the atmosphere. Her orbit had degraded over the years,” King said.

“Some kind of inter-dimensional anomaly perhaps? A black hole? I’ve tried to work it out over the years, and I can’t. All I know is, it appeared, we fell into it, and we ended up here,” he said. “I made the decision to remain here because I reasoned that if a rescue party were to come, it’d be best to stay in one place.”

“A reasonable decision,” King said.

Dolarhyde looked away. “And perhaps the wrong one, nevertheless. If only I could have found the courage to strike out on my own, find a way back. But I couldn’t. I wanted to keep them safe.”

“You did your best.”

“All I did was sign their death warrant. I wonder if it’s some kind of joke.”

Jessica frowned. “I don’t follow.”

“A joke. Like fate is laughing at me. Here I am, the last of my crew. Left to die on his own. Penance for my negligence, eh?” Dolarhyde said.

“I think you’re too hard on yourself,” King said. “And besides, we’re here now. If you’re agreeable to it, I’d like to take you back to the
Defiant
.”

“The
Defiant
?”

She smiled. “My ship. Archon class.”

“I don’t know it, but she sounds grand,” Dolarhyde said, for a moment distracted from his maudlin reverie.

“She is,” Jessica said.

Dolarhyde nodded in Hawk’s direction. “Of course, I know who you are. Don’t quite understand how you can be here, and looking so young, but I can put a name to that Texan mug of yours.”

Hawk grinned. “I did wonder.”

“Yeah. I remember when you went missing. They said you were dead…” Dolarhyde said.

“Greatly exaggerated,” Hawk grinned.

“Ain’t that right,” Dolarhyde said.

Captain Praror surveyed the area. “We should probably get to the pyramid soon, Captain King. While we have light.”

“Agreed,” Jessica said. She turned back to Captain Dolarhyde. “We noticed a big, black monolith not far from here. D’you know of it?”

Dolarhyde nodded slowly. His small, dark eyes sparkled with knowing.

“Yeah. I wondered when you’d bring it up.”

11.

The mountain opened under Dolarhyde’s careful touch. They stepped back as it revealed itself to them. Then they followed him in.

* * *

Dolarhyde shuffled through the pristine white innards of the pyramid. Looking around, Jessica could see that it was slightly different to the last pyramid she’d had the fortune of investigating.

“This is different . . .” Greene said with an awe struck cluck of his tongue.

“My reaction the first time,” King said. “It’s just so massive.”

“Size of a mountain,” Hawk said, peering up to where the very top of the pyramid was lost to shadow.

“Indeed,” Captain Praror said.

“This way, this way,” Dolarhyde said.

He showed them what looked like a chair. It couldn’t be anything else. Completely angular, with a back rest and seat. Jessica looked to the others and found comfort in the fact they were just as surprised by the presence of what could only be a driving seat as she.

“Sit,” Dolarhyde urged her, his eyes darting back and forth.

“Okay . . .” King said. She hopped up onto the seat best she could, thankful once again that her condition had abated for the time being. “Now what?”

Before Dolarhyde or anyone else could even begin to answer, the lights went out. Apart for one. A single strong beam of light fell upon her forehead. Jessica peered into it, squinting.

She heard Dolarhyde chuckle like a child watching a circus act. She tried to look for him, but the light was blinding. Everything else was shadow.

And there was something on her mind.
In
her mind. Like the light was burrowing a hole in her forehead. Opening her up. Jessica concentrated on it, sought it out.

Who are you? What are you doing in my head?
she asked the presence steadily making itself known in her mind. Its answer rang out like a division bell. It sent a shiver through her entire body.

Deep and booming, the unmistakable voice of the pyramid itself spoke to her directly. Into her head.

I AM HERE

Then all was dark.

12.

She travelled across time and space. Through it. Around it. In between.

Her primitive human brain barely accepted the reality of what she saw, let alone comprehended everything for what it was. Colour and light. Speed. Incredible speed.

Set your controls for the heart of the sun
, she thought and laughed hysterically, at the top of her lungs.

Then she found herself standing in a huge white hall. Pristine, sterile.

“Hello again, Captain,” Dana said.

“Dana?” Jessica asked, somewhat overwhelmed and disoriented.

“Yes. It’s me. Don’t ask me where we are. I’m not entirely sure I’ve got it figured out yet. The pyramid doesn’t tell me a lot. Well, not a lot that I can understand at any rate. But I believe this to be a kind of corridor between universes.”

“A gap.”

Dana smiled. “Yes. Yes, exactly. A gap.”

“Why am I here?” Jessica asked.

“Because I asked them to bring you here,” Dana told her.

“Them? The makers of these things?”

Dana shook her head. “No, the devices themselves. They have a consciousness, Captain, but I don’t know if you’ll believe me when I tell you that they’re each linked to one another. A kind of hive mind. But it takes some work to get them all talking again. There’s a couple out there that aren’t operating anymore. Totally inert.”

“So even these things can break down,” Jessica noted. “You must have a reason for pulling me here? To take you back?”

“No. To warn you. I know where you are. You’ve stepped into some very real danger. General Carn is en route to your location now, as we speak,” Dana said.

“Carn?”

“He has learned the location of the other pyramids in this galaxy and he is trying to gain access to each one. Eventually, Carn will find the cypher that controls them all,” Dana said.

“The cypher?”

Dana swallowed. “A way of controlling them to manipulate time itself. If he manages to do that, then he could wipe out whole civilisations at a whim. All opposition to the Draxx erased from existence. Lost.”

“My God…” Jessica said, lost for any other words.

“Exactly. And he’s very close to discovering it. He already knows the devices are capable of such a feat. Just not how to make them do it. That’s the cypher. And it’s what I’m going to give to you,” Dana said. She handed Jessica a small white pebble. She took it and turned it over in her hand. Exactly like something you’d get on a beach, washed smooth by the tide. “What is it?”

“Knowledge. When the time comes, you’ll know what to do with it,” Dana said. “Now it’s imperative he doesn’t gain access to this pyramid. He’s less than two hours away. But there may be time to wake the pyramid enough to get it to disappear. I need you to buy me time, though.”

“I’ll do what I can.”

“One more thing, Captain. The old man with you. He has a gift when it comes to communicating with this particular pyramid. He’s valuable to you. It’s important you get his help.”