He Who Dares: Book Two (The Gray Chronicals 2) (28 page)

But like the man in Greece mythology who went to a table to exchange his troubles only to come home with the ones he had.  Everyone else who brought their troubles to the table did the same after realizing that someone else had worse troubles than he did.  While it lasted it freaked a few people out, and one of the reasons the Navy made sure everyone had at least one transfer under their belt before posting them to a ship, thereby weeding out the ones that couldn’t take it.  Some other Mike Gray’s he looked at didn’t look well at all, while others looked as if they were near death.  Mike pushed the thoughts away and concentrated on his repeater screen.  A few minutes later, the mirror images faded away, and he heard more than one-person breathed a sigh of relief.  He felt like letting out one himself, but resisted, as Captain, he was supposed to show a modicum of restraint.  Once passed the multiphase they seemed to drift through the gray twilight of the inter-dimensional void, or
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space.   Here, unlike the sidereal universe, it was possible to ‘see’ both with sensors and optical, but more akin to watching ghosts than real three dimensional objects.  Star and planets showed up as negative points of blackness in the eternal gray landscape, while ships appeared transparent and ghostly when one was seen at all.  Having travelled through
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before on his internship with a ‘Free Trader’, he’d seen firsthand what they looked like.  His Captain pointed out that some of the ships they’d seen in their travels didn’t match any known ships flying around in their universe.  Some of the known alien ships hadn’t flown in hundreds of years, yet here they were flying through this nether realm. 

It brought up the specter of time dilation and some wondered if what they were seeing was nothing more than an echo of a ship that had entered
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space. It was an odd thought.  Could this dimension contain an eerie echo of all the ships that had ever, or will even pass through it?  It was a question no one had ever come close to answering.  The other anomaly that few liked to talk about was what happened when two ships ‘interspaced’ with each other.  It had happened to a few ‘Free Trader’ ships, and people who reluctantly spoke of it got a funny look on their face when they did.

For some it was a terrifying experience as the two ships crossed paths, and unlike normal space manoeuvring was almost impossible as nothing reacted at the same speed or direction it should.  One man claimed to have passed into and spent time inside a fusion reactor, but as he now spent most of his time inside a rum bottle, few took his story seriously.  Mike spoke to him a few times and wasn’t so sure, and wondered if the experience was the reason, this one time star ship Captain, had turned into a drunk in the first place.  Spending even a few second looking at the inside the roaring hell of a man made star would turn anyone mad.  A week later, Mike got a call from the Bridge during his down time, and he answered immediately.

“Captain-aye!”   His gut tightening expecting bad news of some kind.

“Skipper.  It’s about that ghost of another ship we picked up the other day.”

“Really?”  Mike sat up, his interest perked.

“Yes sir and, it’s a lot closer and off our port beam.”

“And?”  Ghost ship weren’t dangerous, just scary as hell.

“I hate to say this, Skipper, but she’s on an intercept course.”

“That’s not good.  Have the helm try to adjust our course a little to steer clear of her.  I’ll be on the Bridge in five.”  In
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space, unlike normal space, a ship couldn’t maneuver anywhere near as much, and even a hard maneuver barely changed a ship's course.    

“Whoa…”  Janice murmured as he came onto the Bridge and to his vacated seat.

“Tell me Jan.”

“You’re not going to believe this Skipper, but her running lights are blinking.”

“Helm, how we are doing on moving away from her?”

“Not good, Skipper, Sally Goldman answered, “I moved away and little, and they are following… it’s as if that want to intersperse with us.” That wasn’t good.  Unlike normal space, any movement was slow, as if the ship was stuck in amber.

“Put it up on the main viewer, Jan.”  A few second later the ghostly ship of an unknown design appeared, and a lot closer than Mike would have liked, had this been normal space.  Mike studied the ship for a few moments, puzzled by the fuzzy blinking running lights.  Then Janice snapped her finger.

“That flashing isn’t random, Skipper, its three short, three long, three short.  Anyone know what that means?”  She asked, looking over her shoulder.  Pete Standish gave her a funny look.

“This isn’t the time for riddles, Leftenant but it's a good one.  And I think I know the answer.”  Pete chuckled.  “It’s a frigging SOS!”

“What!  I mean… why would anyone send an SOS here?”  It was meaningless in so many ways that Mike didn’t know where to start. 

Both ships were intangible, mealy shadows or ghosts.  There was nothing he could do, even if he wanted to, no matter what kind of emergency they had, but still… He remembered another ship in desperate need of help, one most people thought beyond help, yet he and Gramps had pulled her back out of the crushing grip of a Jovian planet to safety.

“Belay that last order to alter course.  Maintain our present course and speed.”

“Skipper…”  Mike looked around at his XO, seeing the worried look on his face.  “Do you think that’s wise, sir?”  He asked formally.

“There’s no risk to the ship, Pete.”

“I wasn’t thinking about the ship, Skipper.  I was thinking about our people, and the effect of an interspace would have on them.”   He nibbled his lower lips, shooting Mike an out of sight pleading look so the crew wouldn’t see.

“I understand your concern, Mr. Standish, and we will take all precaution to ensure that as few members of the crew are awake for the event.”  With so little to do in hyperspace, most crew members slept, read, played chess or generally found a way to stave off the boredom. Putting most of them to sleep for a while wouldn’t endanger the ship.

“Aye-aye, sir.  I’ll get the pharmacist mate onto it right away.”

“See to it, Number One.”

“Permission to leave the Bridge, sir.”

“Permission granted.  Carry on.” 

Gradually, the two ships came together, and everyone on the Bridge tensed as the two ship’s interspaced.  Imperceptibly at first, and even knowing in the forebrain that the other ship didn’t have any real substance, it was still disconcerting to see the phantom hull of the other vessel coming towards you.  Even Mike held his breath as it crossed the Bridge, seeing more than one crewmember hunch over as it passed through them.  Even Mike stoic nature was put to the test when it was his turn.  He let out a long breath of relief when nothing happened, eyeing his surroundings.  He had to blink a few times to get what he was seeing into perspective as a bulkhead, piping, electrical conduits, and even people glided by.  In an echo of what was happening on his ship, most of the beings he saw were lying down, or strapped tightly into their control station seats.

“Sir!  What should we do?”  Janice nervous voice asked from the other side of a phantom bulkhead, now no more than a phantom herself.

“Stay where you are and observe.”

Just then, they entered a clear space, and it took a moment to realize they were now in the equivalent of the other ship’s Bridge, or CIC if she was a warship.  Unlike his ship, the other ship’s Bridge was arranged in a circle, with stations set side by side, each ‘manned’ by a pale skinned humanoid being, but Mike only noticed that in passing, as his attention was mainly on the tall ornately dress being sitting on a thrown like raised dais.  With no outward indication, it was impossible to tell if the being was male or female, but for some unknown reason Mike suspected female.  He couldn’t say why, as most of the being looked exactly the same. Maybe it was the way he, or she was dressed.  Two other beings, not so ornately dressed, stood looking at him, and strangely they were the only one that were.  None of the crew so much as looked over their shoulder out of curiosity, which Mike thought was odd.

The being sitting in what was clearly the Captain’s chair looked back at him with expressionless eye that somehow had an insectoid appearance.  Overall, they were humanoid, as humans like to say, in that they had two of everything, arms, legs, eyes, ears, a small button like nose and a wide mouth.  Mike glanced down to the hands, not sure what to expect.  Instead of four fingers and an opposed thumb, these beings had three fingers and an opposed thumb, suggesting insect heritage in their genetic code.  For a moment, it looked as if the two ships would drift out of phases until one of the less ornate being gave some unheard command.   Whatever it said, the two ships stopped drifting apart.  At that point, the ‘Captain’ of the other ship said something, and a respectful discussion ensued.   The upshot was that one of the lesser being rushed off, and quickly came back with a large tablet and a scribe.

“Janice!  Get me a whiteboard from the mess up here as quick as you can!”

“Aye-aye, sir.  One whiteboard coming up.”  It took Janice a little longer to work her way through the real and phantom ship to his conference room and return with a large whiteboard, swearing softly as she ran into the corner of an unseen consult.

“Thank Jan.”   Mike murmured as he watched the being write something on the board in big black letters.



“That’s a clear as mud.”  Janice muttered.

“Hold the board up, Jan.”  She did and Mike wrote on it.

‘
WHAT RAC
E
’
He wrote.  For a moment a discussion ensured when they read the board.  The two nodded at last and looked to the Captain for instructions.  While this was going on, several other beings entered the Bridge, none wearing much of anything and began cleaning and feeding the Captain.

“Nice room service his nips has over there.”  Was Jan’s observation.

“Yes, but did you notice, none of them took any notice of what was going on around them?”

“That’s odd.”

“Yes.  They had one duty, and that’s to look after whoever it is sitting in the high seat.  To them nothing else existed.”

“Some high mucky-muck or just a Captain with a God complex?”

“Unknown - Hold on.  Here we go.”

“Oh lord!”  Was Jan’s comment when she saw what was written on the tablet.

‘
HARMON
Y
’

“You can say that again.”  At that moment, Pete Standish walked carefully onto the Bridge and made his way over.

“Harmony!”  He muttered.  “Oh my lord.  Do you know how many people have ever seen one of them this close?”

“Very few I imagine.”

“You can say that again.  Very few live to tell about it.  You enter their space, you die it’s as simple as that.”

Mike nodded, having heard the stories as well.  What he didn’t say was the ‘Free Trader’ ships and the Voss could pass through and sometimes trade with the Harmony, nor the fact he’d been on a Free Trader ship that had.  Even so, this was the first time he’d actually seen one of them as all exchanged were made in space, usually in an orbiting station.  You put what they wanted to trade in the docking area and left.  A flashing light would indicate when you could return.  They also had a mean of blanketing video and spy pickups.  They never cheated, and expected you to do the same.  The Voss told of one ship’s Captain that hadn’t, one of two ships.  After the exchange the ship left and within minutes, once clear of the Harmony ship, it exploded.  That sent a clear message to any future Captain of what to expect if he cut the deal to close.  So now he knew what a being from the Harmony looked like.  He wrote on the board ‘human’, seeing the two beings turn and speak to the leader.  She, or it nodded and spoke.

‘
Who are yo
u
?’
  One wrote back, and Mike wasn’t surprised they knew how to write and understand Anglic.