Carinae Sector: 01 - Traders' Scourge - Part 1 - Alien Flight (29 page)

By habit the Admiral again looked at the reports and estimated losses for the alien ships. Two frigate sized objects had been observed by the sonar buoys slowly falling the two kilometres to the Naturaliste plateau, even as the remaining alien ships had powered away to the north-east. The two ships he organised earlier would suffice to salvage those space ships he decided as he reviewed their specifications. To cover the salvage ships he sent back a replenishment ship, two destroyers and three frigates. The salvage ships would have minimal protection, but he was hoping to get to the downed space ships before the aliens either destroyed them or returned for them. This time he decided to himself, he would accomplish a mission objective by stealth rather than confrontation.

‘Let the Unified Command parse that any way they will.’ he thought to himself sombrely.

                                                            ***

Omerio considered the latest star system he had entered with unease, and quickly verified that the engines and cloaking device were working correctly. The young star system was full to overflowing with several belts of asteroids and two forming planets closer in to the star.

The trail from the Tilmud ships arrowed straight across the system from what he could tell. He noted that one of the frigates had left the small fleet and taken a different course directly back towards populated space.

Possibly the lone Tilmud frigate had run into mechanical problems. Cautiously Omerio plotted a staggered course though the cluttered system. It would be a great place to hide or launch an ambush he decided, as he charted a course that reduced that risk.

                                                            ***

Garendestat was totally exhausted and he could no longer feel his left arm, unless he knocked it against his side. He then felt his broken arm too well, especially when he had managed to free his arm carefully earlier on without sliding off the end of the cable. He now slowly climbed the tie down cable with the thick cable clamped between his legs. From time to time he had paused and secured the tool grip holder around another section of cable, and then lowered the deeper parts of the cable beneath him. He knew he could not lift the entire cable easily in his weakened condition.

As Garendestat continued his low climb up the cable, his space suit voided a series of large bubbles. The suit's inbuilt computer gave concise readings of temperature, now rising, and pressure, still slowly falling, and adjusted the space suit environment to suit. His air had already gone past the thirty minutes mark, and he decided that he was using less air as he rose to the surface. The mechanics of water pressure in the oceans dominated everything he tiredly evaluated. He was still twenty meters from the surface, but felt he could go no further, as he rested for two minutes. The young Trader raised his helmet to the surface and the space suit’s proximity alarm went off.

Garendestat felt cold and remained still as he looked up at the surface. The proximity alarm was in a code that meant a flying object with no Trader recognition codes was within hand weapons range of his position. The object was stationary from what he could tell, so it was probably one of the human’s strange rotary aircraft and it would be over the research rig containing the last of the Voorde. The thought that the Voorde could escape and decimate this world spurred the lieutenant to immediate action, and he started to climb the tie down cable again. As he climbed the air supply buzzer started to protest constantly and he knew his air supply was going.

The lieutenant’s vision started to flicker and he momentarily spotted a strange form with fins on long legs above him near the surface. Garendestat checked his depth display as he climbed with fifteen meters to go, and his body was giving what little it had left. Ten meters and his joints seemed ready to explode and dimly he was aware of a pressure failure warning coming from his suit. The suit pressure was decreasing so rapidly that his vital signs were showing that gas bubbles were forming in his joints.

Garendestat recalled Halbindestat mentioning that the highest pressure changes in an ocean occurred in the first several meters of depth, and he was approaching the surface. The space suit was venting a solid trail of air now as it sought to both save him from injury and also not rupture from the pressure differential. He knew that if he could get to the surface and stay with the floating research rig then the suit should keep him alive.

Eight metres to go, then seven and Garendestat was totally spent. He stopped and his legs could not continue to clamp the cable much longer. He felt a curious detachment as he considered the possibility of the long fall to dark depths of this ocean. A human swam in front on his face plate and looked at him for scan seconds from a few meters away, before it gestured upwards. Garendestat gave a small start, realised that the human was not armed, and then casually pointed to his arm hanging down his side. The human seemed to recognise his plight as he glanced at the Traders injured arm and the amount of air pouring from the valves of the space suit.

The Trader watched as the human quickly attached two self inflating lifting bags to the lifting ring of his suit. He then inflated the bags as he breathed from a small air tank slung across a shoulder. Garendestat was promptly grabbed under the good arm by the smaller human and rapidly propelled to the surface along the cable.

                                                            ***

Steve swam swiftly under the floating object and considered the lights he had seen dimly from the helicopter. A thick cable descended from the floating object and Steve evaluated the cable as a restraint of some type. Possibly the object had come free from the big ship he was hearing about. But why was it hanging straight down like an anchor?

Steve then grabbed the cable and he could feel something moving further down the cable. He then rose to the surface for another gulp of air and gave Dan and Mark the 'ok' symbol. Steve quickly dove under again and grabbed the cable as he surveyed the water underneath the cable. Suddenly he could see a large suited form with a light on what must be the helmet pointing at the surface. The alien might not see him, as he had the dark mass of the floating object behind him as he watched the being slowly climb the rope towards him.

Steve knew as he went back to the surface that the alien was still too deep for him to get to without scuba tanks. He made a point of being visible now by swimming a few metres out from the object to the recovery line from the helicopter. He again spoke to Dan and Mark via the microphone on the lifting vest.

‘We have someone or something down here in about ten metres of water. Dan can you quickly drop a small recovery air tank and two fifty kilogram lifting bags?’

Dan acknowledged and Steve grabbed the requested equipment as it landed in the water two metres from him wrapped in two more life vests. Steve left the life vests attached to the recovery harness, and with the small air tank over his left shoulder he swam quickly over to the side of the object, before he dove down the thick cable again. He saw that the alien had climbed the cable to within seven metres of the surface, but now seemed still.

Steve then realized both that the alien seemed injured due to how the left arm hung down to one side, and that possibly the space suit was failing as it seemed to be discharging a lot of air. He took a decent gulp of air from the recovery bottle and dove down strongly alongside the heavy cable to the still form of the alien. The creature was large he evaluated, it would easily top three metres when it stood, and in the space suit it must at least weigh three or even four times his own one hundred kilogram weight. He had the presence of mind to stop for another breath of air from the recovery bottle, then placed himself in front of the alien from a distance of three metres. The alien gave a small start as Steve gestured to the surface and then the alien pointed at his obviously injured arm.

Steve now wasted no time, as he quickly attached the lifting bags which inflated via their own gas charges after several seconds as he breathed again from the recovery bottle. He then firmly grabbed the injured alien under the good arm and propelled him towards the surface. Steve could feel the mass of the alien and his suit holding him back, as he powered towards the surface with strong kicks from his fins. He had to slow once for another quick draft of air, but the alien was easier to manage in the last few meters as the space suit seemed to gain a little buoyancy. They both reached the surface in an explosion of effort and spray, and Steve quickly grabbed and attached the recovery harness to the stout lifting lug on the back of the space suit.

Steve could see that the alien had some sort of cable restraint mechanism rigged to an equipment belt on the space suit, and he had the presence of mind to shorten the cable once he had the alien laying on his back. He then quickly attached both life vests to the shoulders of the space suit, and checked on the alien inside, who regarded him calmly as he used his good arm to place his broken arm across his torso. The alien seemed to be breathing a bit easier and Steve could hear a valve opening and closing on the top of the space suit.

Steve knew that the recovery harness would be what kept the both of them afloat at that moment. He gathered his breadth, then he radioed quickly on an update of how long until the Aurora Discovery reached their position. Finally he asked Dan to drop two more life jackets that he could secure to the upper torso of the alien’s space suit.

Mark quickly explained for Dan’s benefit that the alien in his space suit was too heavy to lift with the recovery cable, and that they would await the arrival of the ship. Steve positioned the extra life jackets under the shoulders of the space suit and was careful not to knock the alien’s broken arm. Steve noticed that the alien again regarded him calmly, though he had yet to make a sound.

                                                            ***

Chapter 14

The Maveen lead probe considered the details of the weak scan it had conducted on the approaches to the huge underwater canyon two hours after leaving the Trader ship. Three other probes would return shortly from a high speed survey of the canyon closer to the main land. Speed was the essence, though they would have to observe the forms and reassure those that they sought that the risks of interaction were minimal. In moments the other three probes had returned and after a quick exchange of information, all six Maveen probes accelerated back to the original plateau where the Trader ship had landed. The probes ensured that they were cloaked and not disturbing the ocean layers in their rapid journey.

The lead probe passed a search algorithm over the new data from the canyon, and it could soon begin to make a predictive analysis. The probe considered that it now knew the probable numbers of those they sought, a queen and her daughters. The Maveen probes silently passed at a distance the still hulls of the two crippled Trader ships. By habit they made a detailed passive scan indentifying the orientation and damage to the ships. Also the probes quickly found and analysed the crushed fragments of the strange underwater human ship.

Possibly the Trader captain would be interested in this information on the sneak ships, but he could not be permitted to know about the ancients the probes sought. To any human surface ships two kilometres above on the surface, the cloaked Maveen probes were invisible underwater as they continued with their search. The lead probe led the other probes a few kilometres south of the downed ships, and gave updated orders via long wavelength soundwaves at very low power.

‘We will travel slowly at all times from now on. We will search south first and then move west in a zigzag search pattern. It is unwise to inadvertently discover them, especially as the mother’s first instinct is to protect her young. We will use the agreed signal at low power.’

As the probes slowed down and spread out in a search grid, they send soft ultra low frequency calls into the water. The calls could only be initiated by probes that had received the code changes based on the exceptional circumstances like the information they had uncovered. The lead probe knew that the rest of the changed mission, indeed the rest of all the probe's existences depended on the next few hours.

                                                            ***

Steve and the alien in the space suit lay alongside one another in the ocean not far from the strange floating object. The alien seemed to be resting though Steve had to steady the life jackets under space suit on occasion as the alien seemed weaker. Steve had checked again the condition of the alien by looking back into the sealed suit. He noted that the ornate facial and neck tattoos of the alien seemed blackened, the rest of the skin was a blue grey colour, the two eyes were large, brown and intelligent looking.

Hopefully Samantha and her medical team could do something for the alien once they were aboard the Aurora discovery. He then noted the differences between the suited alien and the fierce looking red creatures he could still occasionally see locked inside the floating object. They looked to be a completely different species.

‘So are they pets or is one of them a predator?’

He thought as he continued to wait in the water below the hovering helicopter.

Steve also wondered about the chance meeting south of the Abrolhos islands.

‘Why here and why now?’

He considered to himself as he deflated and secured the now useless pair of lifting bags.

Garendestat felt light headed, disorientated and in real pain. The glimmer tattoos on his neck, cheek and shoulders burned like they were on fire. On reaching the surface, the space suit had opened a valve on the top of his suit to admit air. However a fine mist of sea water sprayed down over him when an occasional small wave caught his helmet. Also his broken arm had gone stiff and very sore, and he knew he would need medical treatment on his ship as soon as possible.