Ancient Birthright (46 page)

Saigg turned to Reedn. “Then there’s a chance that other souls are still alive and have established colonies in distant star systems. We’ll need to find out.”

“What are the capabilities of this ship?”

“My maximum speed is .4166 light years per human time period of one hour using my main drive in open space. I can house and feed up to twenty souls for a period of eight days without additional materials. My hull is a metal-organic phase shifting material that is adaptive to the needs of the crew. Operational range extends from vacuum to twenty-thousand feet beneath the seas of Earth. I can withstand temperatures as high as 73.6 percent of the mean temperature at the center of the Sun.

“Did the larger transport ships have similar drives and mission capabilities?”

“No. The faster than light engine design, used on all ships, has mass acceleration limitations. The more massive the ship, the shorter the range for a given amount of fuel. Because of the limited quantities of the two elements you have provided me, the exodus fleet ships had a maximum one way range of 46.7 light years. The range would have been shortened considerably if a ship slowed to scan a planetary system and then accelerated back up to cruise speed.”

“So refugees from Treterra may exist on other planets within a 46.7 light year sphere of space?”

“Unknown, insufficient data to postulate a meaningful answer.”

“How many stars within 50 light years are the same type as this systems star?”

“I have 203 such systems in my data.”

Saigg sat tapping a fist to his chin for a few minutes. “Close current display. Show me all possible configurations of this ships interior.”

The display divided into fifty squares and showed various configurations of seating, bulkheads, and cargo storage. The initial fifty configurations were replaced by fifty more and fifty after that. Saigg watched for several minutes and finally ordered the ship to terminate the display.

“Set interior ship temperature to 341 on the Dorgraa scale,” Saigg ordered, that would be about 70 degrees on the temperature scale the humans used. The interior of the ship filled with vapor as the accumulated ice melted and vaporized.

The vapor disappeared directly into the bulkheads. Saigg asked the ship, “Will the water vapor be condensed and added to the on-board storage tanks?”

“Affirmative. All water vapor is recycled.”

“Describe the method of construction used to make this ship.”

“This ship is a modified metal-organic composite with computational abilities of 5000 on the Zenner scale and intelligence rating of 68.4 on the combined species intelligence scale,” the ship said. “Construction is by budding in the organic phase with growth controlled to determine size and configuration.”

“Are you named?” Saigg asked.

“My name is
Jerrod
, 74
th
in this series of craft.”

“How did you come to be left on the Moon?”

“I and the other two ships with me volunteered to stay behind when the fuel supplies were exhausted.”

“How long have you been in this hangar?”

“63,765,121.46643 Sun revolutions.”

“How have you survived that long in a totally airless environment?”

“I am able to transition my cells between an organic and a metallic state. When the air was released from the installation, I shut down my organic functions and transitioned to a totally metallic state until Reedn asked me to open the hatch. At that point, I began transitioning back to my normal organo-metallic state and brought all systems back to optimum operational capabilities.”

“What is meant by 5000 on the Zenner scale?”

“The Zenner scale is a logarithmic scale of computational ability, where one would be the abilities of a single celled organism, and 3500 would be the ability of the normal luzzon brain. Though,
Janna
, the next ship in line, tells me that Dantee measures very close to our capabilities on the Zenner scale and Tuuan, who is currently in the ship named
Chandra
, is not far behind. We have not had enough interaction with the other species currently on board to compute a measurement of their abilities. The species is not currently in our database.

“Their species is known as human, and they’re the current sentient life form that we know of on Earth. I am Saigg Garuu from the colony ship
Universe Explorer,
and this is my son Reedn. We are returning to Earth after depositing our colonists on Danuaa 3.”

“Yes, I found the historical record of your departure. I’m currently in contact with the
Universe Explorer
and have downloaded a copy of its data files. I have shared the information with the other two ships. How may we assist you in your mission?”
Jerrod
asked.

Chapter-57

A soft attention signal hummed from the intercom. “I told you I didn’t want to be disturbed.”

“I’m sorry Mr. President, but General McAlister is here. He says you sent for him.”

“Send him in. I can give him ten minutes.”

The office door opened, and his secretary waved General McAlister through the door.

“Well General, what do you have to report.”

“Good news, sir. We’ve installed the Airborne Laser System next to the Starfire telescope at Kirtland Air Force base in New Mexico. We used the existing power connections for the system, and they even had a mounting surface poured for a new optical telescope system that had not arrived. We mounted the laser and installed all the support equipment in half the time I’d estimated. The system is ready for operation as soon as you give the order and tell us what to target.”

“Finally, some good news. Your new orders are to link in to NORAD and use their tracking information and destroy that alien spaceship,” the President said.

“Understood, sir. I’ll immediately notify the operations crew to standby for activation orders from your office.”

“I just gave you your orders. You don’t need to standby for anything.”

“Sir, I don’t have the authority to deploy an offensive weapon in a preemptive strike. That requires your written order, and if it’s against another country then it requires the concurrence of Congress. Since this is not technically another country, your written order is sufficient. It must be an order issued in writing by you. To ensure someone else does not usurp your authority as Commander-in-Chief. The unit has not received an activation order. That precludes it from even testing the system.”

“Okay General, I get your point. I’ll issue the orders immediately. Return to your Unit and tell them to be ready for action as soon as the orders are delivered.”

“I’m on my way, Mr. President.”

The President picked up the phone. “Connect me with the Joint Chiefs,” he said as the office door closed behind the general.

Chapter-58

Moon Installation: Transjump plus 7 years, 223 days:

Beldon was astounded at the amount of work accomplished in just two days. The lower gravity on the Moon helped. Each individual was able to lift six times the weight they would have normally been able to lift on Earth. Once the load-pod was empty, they’d disconnected it from the PTO ships. Four souls had picked it up, put it on two of the flatbed trailers and pushed it into the hangar through the large spaceship airlock.

The PTOs had taken a little longer to move. Once they were disconnected from the load-pod, Dantee used the maneuvering thrusters to raise first the nose so that a flatbed trailer could be placed under the forward legs. Then she’d used the aft maneuver engines to repeat the action to place another under the rear legs. The engineers then used tractors to pull the PTOs into the airlock. The crew now had access to warm living quarters and the food dispensing units on the PTOs without having to leave the installation.

However, some sections of the installation were still in the process of being pressurized, and others were so cold that spacesuits were required to ensure the individuals working in the area did not receive cold-burns from touching the equipment. The engineers estimated that it would be a week before the crew could move about the facility without protective suits.

Only one section of the installation was unusable. The rock fall that Saigg, Beldon and Striker had found partially blocking the access tunnel to hydroponics was caused by a small asteroid impact directly over the main garden section of the hydroponic area. The impact caused extensive damage to the lights, trays and chemical storage tanks.

The remainder of the facility was in surprisingly good condition. It was taking a while to get the communication section up and running since most of those systems had been organic based systems that had died when the area was depressurized. The external antenna array was functional, and they had adapted it for use with the equipment from the
Endeavour
.

Beldon pulled off his spacesuit gloves to enable him to use the keyboard on the computer from
Endeavour
. He logged on to the Internet and accessed his email account. One-hundred and forty-three emails were waiting for transmission to his email application. As they downloaded, he wrote an email to his family and explained they were once again within communications range. He told them he was going to establish a videophone account over the Internet using ‘Manin.Themoon’ as his account name

Beldon downloaded the Video call application and established his account then waited for contact from his family.

The three-luzzon children ran into the room and surrounded him.

“Have you made contact?” Tuuan asked before the other two could.

“Not yet.” Beldon said. “I’ve sent them a text message and told them I was setting up a videophone account. Now I’m just waiting for them to get back to me. I’m not sure how often they check the email system.”

Beldon had convinced himself that the wait for a reply was going to be long. He just about fell out of his chair when the computer chimed to let him know he had a request from “Littlesis.D” to be added to his contact list.

“I think it’s my younger sister, Terrie.” He accepted the contact and the application rang with an incoming call.

The video screen opened to show him Terrie and a man that he didn’t know who was close to Terrie’s age. “Terrie, its Bel. Who’s that with you?”

“This is my husband Jimmy Clark.”

“You’re married? When did that happen?”

“Almost six months ago. We got married here at NRAO. Hooker and his band of cutthroats tried to crash the celebration. Colonel Bitman took care of him and tossed them off the facility. Where are you? We thought you might have been killed until we got your last email.”

“Well right now I’m sitting in the communications room of the Moon facility. We just got the computer tied into the antenna array so that I could establish a connection to the Internet.”

“You’re on the Moon?”

“I thought my video connection name might give you a clue.”

“Can we say hello?” Dantee asked.

“Who’s was that?” Terrie wanted to know.

“That was Saigg’s daughter, Dantee. She and her brother Reedn and her cousin Tuuan are here with me. They want to get in on the conversation, too.” Dantee climbed to Beldon’s shoulder. Reedn and Tuuan settled in his lap.

“Y-y-y-you made it. You got to the
Universe Explorer
,” Terrie stammered.

“Yes, we made it. These three had already made it to the Russian ship by the time we got there. With their help, we managed to get the
Endeavour
to the
Universe Explorer
. We lost one of the Russians. He was badly injured when they collided with the GPS satellite. This is Dantee on my shoulder and Reedn with the impressive dorsal spines. Tuuan is the cute one on my right. They are going to be three-years-old in a few days and are the best spaceship pilots I have ever flown with. They, along with their uncle Davvie, flew the mission from the
Universe Explorer
to the Moon.”

“Can they talk? English I mean,” Jimmy asked.

Dantee looked at Beldon then turned back to the screen. “What white eyes mean Kemosabi? We speak good Earthman babble.”

“Ignore her. They’ve been watching too many human television recordings. They speak perfect English and some Russian, a smattering of French and maybe a few other languages. One of their grandfathers is the chief linguist on the
Universe Explorer,
and the other is Command Prime of the ship,” Beldon said.

“Where’s Cindy?”

“She’s back on the
Universe Explorer
. Soleene was too young to bring on this mission.”

“Okay, I’ll bite, who’s Soleene?”

“Soleene Johanna Dumas, your niece. She must have been born just about the time you were getting married.”

“We got to watch when she was born,” Tuuan injected. “It was the first time we ever saw a human birth.”

“Soleene likes me best,” Reedn added. “She likes it when I change my dorsal colors.”

“You and Cindy had a baby?” Terrie squealed.

“Dang, that was hard on the ears, sis.”

“That sounds like the little ones when they want to eat,” Reedn said.

“What?” Terrie asked.

“Renna just had a clutch of four boys, and when they’re hungry and want mom to feed them, they make a sound just like the one you made.”

Terrie turned to Jimmy and explained that Renna was Saigg’s mate and the mother of Dantee and Reedn.

“Are Mom and Dad close by?” Beldon asked.

“Jimmy could you run across the hall and see if my folks are in their apartment, and give Colonel Bitman a call to see if he could join us.”

Beldon heard footsteps behind him and glanced over his shoulder to see Saigg and Striker come into the room.

Bel turned back to the screen. “Saigg and Colonel Striker just came in. I’ll have them pull up chairs and join the discussion.”

“Jimmy gave me the thumbs up signal. Mom and dad are coming. He’s trying to call Colonel Bitman.”

Beldon watched Terrie on the screen as Saigg moved into the camera’s view. He could imagine her first glimpse or a larger version of Reedn, but with an older looking face. The bone structure under the multihued skin was more defined, and the eyes just looked older. The wrinkles that outlined his eyes in concentric rings gave the impression of age.