The Icarian Legacy Collected Edition: Brave Souls - First Strike (Volume 3) (21 page)

“Yes we did. I hope they are right. It would mean a lot. According to the engineers and the scientists we can use most of the guns of the ship and they hope that we can reverse engineer them. And they found the weapons and ammunition their soldiers used. Apparently they still used projectile weapons, according to the scientists some kind of advanced coil gun or rail gun. And they say that it is something that will revolutionize our weapon manufacturing.”

The captain smiled inside his helmet. As the information’s arrived the findings looked better and better. He knew that not everything will be as they believe later but if even they could use half the things they found so far that would be of great help in the battle that he knew was coming.

As he thought of that the group of scientists that came with him exchanged information’s from the group that was here. The exchange was short and when it was over the first group slowly left the bridge. Now beside him and Linda on the bridge were only the soldiers and eight scientists. He knew that in several minutes only the scientists will remain and maybe two or three soldiers while the rest will retire on the Deadalus.  They were working without break for more than twenty six hours and he knew that everyone was tired. He turned toward Edward. The young scientist was watching one of the consoles and discussing something with one of the engineers.

“Mr. Hanson we will retire on the Deadalus. Your group has this shift.”

The young scientist turned toward the captain and nodded.

“Thanks captain. I think we can handle couple of hours by ourselves. See you in eight hours.”

The captain just nodded and turned. The group that was with Linda went after him. When they left with only the small group of scientists and marines the bridge seemed empty.

Edward watched the captain leave and then continued his discussion with the engineer.

While they talked the marines Ellis and Fillip watched them.

“It is time for another tour of the ship. Take your group and take a look at those weapons they found. And see if you can read some of those manuscripts and papers they found. In your file I read that you speak several dead languages. Who knows we might get lucky.”

Fillip smiled.

“Yes we might major.”

After this he turned and went outside as he did Ellis heard on the military radio.

“Beta team on me…Time for another tour.”

“Shit not again.”

“Shut up Michaels. Or are you scared from ghosts?”

“He’s scared from ghosts alright.”

“You’ll be sorry later boys.”

“Well you might be scared from ghosts but I believe that what we will see now will lift your spirits.”

“What is that?”

“You know some high tech guns and explosives. You know marine stuff.”

“Hurrah for that sir. I was starting to get bored.”

“We all were Manning.”

As the group exited the bridge the chatter and the laughing continued. Ellis looked at Han. They were alone with the scientists. He noticed that same as him Han was smiling as well.

“Michaels will have a fizz when he sees the weapons sir. They are his dream come true.”

Ellis smiled at the comment.

“That will be an interesting story for later. Let’s take a walk in the corridor outside. I want to see the cabins.”

“Yes sir.”

“Mr. Hanson we’ll be right outside if you need us.”

The doctor nodded and turned back to his job and the soldiers exited the bridge and started looking at the crew quarters.

Edward looked again at the console. He couldn’t shake the feeling that he had that it was something important. He looked at the small tiny chip that was obviously removed from it and looked at the buttons on the consoles. It looked a lot like some kind of computer interface or something similar.

He turned to the engineer again.

“Hans I’m telling you it looks like a computer or maybe some kind of interface. And I’m sure that this chip has something to do with activating this ship.”

The German engineer looked at the younger scientist.

“Edward you might be right. But we don’t know. It might be something else entirely and with the damage this ship sustained it won’t be hard to destroy it if we start pressing buttons…Especially wrong buttons. Just leave it for tomorrow.”

“Hans you know as well as me that we searched everything else on this bridge. I agree that it was just a surface search but this console is the only thing left. And I think that it is the most important. No, i don’t think, i know it is.”

The engineer smiled.

“And how would you know that my younger friend?”

“Because it’s my job to know, because i designed the Deadalus, i saw the bridge or what was left of it on the alien ship. It had something similar to this. It was different but it was obviously something important.”

The engineer waved with his hand. He knew that it was pointless to argue with the young scientist.

“Ok Ed. We will try to activate it but first let’s take one more look at the other consoles. After that we will turn our attention on this.”

Edward inhaled and went after the engineer.

“Ok Hans. It waited this long another hour or two won’t make a difference.”

They both slowly moved towards the other consoles and started checking them out. The other scientists were doing the same.

As the scientists studied the consoles, and the soldiers did their second search of the ship and slowly headed towards the armory, two people on the Deadalus looked at strange language on the notes they found. Drs. Karagunis and De Mikelis were both experts on Earths dead languages. Between them they spoke Latin, Ancient Greek, Egyptian and Phoenician. And as they studied the notes they noticed a pattern. Karagunis still felt a little discomfort as he remembered the chat with the colonel. The hatred or better said the intolerance between Macedonia and his own country made him fell unpleasant when the Macedonian soldier was around. It wasn’t that he hated the young man; he actually liked talking with him and admired him. But the situation was still awkward. They never mentioned it and touched that topic but the gap was still there. It was unspoken but it still existed. That made them to avoid each other as much as they could.

Fillip mentioned that the writing looked familiar. He couldn’t exactly place it but he said that they should take a closer look. And he promised to help in his free time.

“Damn that boy had it right. They sure look familiar. They look like a mix of several languages. Just look at the words and the letters. They are not the same but I think what we have here is the language that was the foundation for many of the ancient languages.”

De Mikelis looked at his colleague.

“Maybe even all of them. Remember they dated the bodies as twelve thousand years old. That sure as hell predates almost every ancient civilization.”

“We’ll have a lot of work tomorrow. And I think that the captain will want to hear this.”

“Yes.”

After this they continued to look at the notes and kept trying to translate them from the languages they both knew. They tried to find a familiar pattern.

After two hours of looking Edward and Hans returned to the first console. The others didn’t reveal anything. Although they tried pressing some buttons the ship remained silent.

As Edward studied the console Hans looked uncomfortable. He knew the reason for that. He was tired. While the others rested he stayed here the whole time and he felt that he was near the end of his endurance.

Edward smiled and took one last look at the console.

He looked at the strange chip. He smiled at that word. He couldn’t exactly be sure that it was a data chip but something in his gut told him that it was. It sure as hell looked like that.

He picked up the chip and put it in what looked like the place where it belonged and turned toward Hans and the others that were close and smiled in his helmet.

“Well here goes nothing.”

And he pressed the button.

At first nothing happened. Then slowly the chip activated and it was pulled inside the console.

“Wow. It is active.”

The comment came from one of the scientists behind him.

“Now let’s see what it does.”

The console activated but nothing else happened, at least anything they could see or hear.

Her conciseness came slowly. She felt strange but she knew that it was normal. As she slowly woke from the long sleep the information’s started coming. The sensors told her that there were intruders on the ship. But as she checked she noticed that the bio readings indicated that they were Alterans.  Anaya felt the ship coming to life and waking up as she did. She knew that the people on board couldn’t notice anything, at least not yet.

It was a long time since the last time she was awake. She knew that she set the system to activate her at the first presence of an Alteran or any other creature on board. But as she checked the status of the ship and the information’s she already knew the reason why she wasn’t activated at once. The system was damaged at least some parts of it and the reason was time. She was surprised as she checked the date. Twelve thousand cycles passed since the day she went to sleep. She expected that her creators would come a lot sooner.

Twelve thousand years. As she checked the position of the fleet she noticed that it was still in orbit of the small planet. But several ships were missing. She noticed their remains on the small planet below. Several other ships showed some damage from meteor impacts. When she felt that she was fully in control and the process of reactivating was finished she started checking the ships systems. And at the same time she turned her attention to her visitors.

As she looked at them she felt an urge to talk to them. It was so long since the last time she had a crew, someone to speak to. As she thought of that images of the last crew appeared from her memory.

She felt a moment of sadness but after that she felt happiness. The Icarian was right. The long waiting paid off. Alterans once again walked her decks. She once again had a crew.

She knew that it was time to make them aware of her presence.

Edward looked at the console. He was expecting the ship to slowly activate but nothing happened. The console looked active but everything else was quiet.

He exhaled and both he and Hans turned. As they did both of them and everyone else jumped back and almost lost their balance as a blue shimmering light appeared before their eyes. The light took the image of the most beautiful women they ever imagined. She had long black hair, blue eyes and small full red lips. And a beautiful slender figure, that was covered by a white robe. They could see through her.

Several gasps escaped from everyone’s lips.

Edward looked at her and his mind already started thinking. He instinctively knew that she must be a hologram. But as he looked at her he knew that she looked real. And as he looked at her she smiled.

Anaya looked at the strange suits her masters wore. And as she noticed their reactions she smiled. They all stepped back and several actually lost their balance when she appeared. As she smiled she noticed that they were all surprised. They were shocked actually.

“Welcome back. I’ve waited so long.”

But as she spoke she noticed that no one understood her. At first she was surprised but as she noticed the data about them and their equipment she was shocked. The equipment was good but it was antique. It was far behind anything that the Alterans used. As she surveyed the scans she noticed that there were differences. They were mostly technological.

As the AI was processing the information the humans slowly got back on their feet and got back their composure back.

Edward same as everyone else noticed that the hologram spoke in strange language they couldn’t understand. As he got back his balance he activated the com on all frequencies.

“Captain, Commander Ellis we have a situation on the bridge.”

The response was quick.

“What situation?” – The question came from Ellis.

Edward exhaled and answered.

“I think we activated the ships Artificial Intelligence. I repeat we activated the ships AI.”

“Roger that. Stay put and stay calm we are coming back.”

“Mm sir it may be useful to have someone who speaks dead languages here as well. I believe that she is speaking on some of them.”

“She…?”

“It is a long story. You’ll see for yourself when you come.”

“Roger. Stay put we’ll be there in five.”

Edward didn’t answer. Instead he turned and looked at the apparition in front of his eyes.

Anaya realized that none of them understood her and as she scanned their primitive ship systems she knew the reason. And she was confused. She was expecting some degradation in the technology but she never expected this. And as she accessed the ships computers and pulled the information from them she finally understood. The people standing in front of her were only partially Alterans. It seemed impossible but somehow the people that she left twelve thousand cycles ago lost all of their technology and started from scratch. There must’ve been a reason but she couldn’t find it yet. And she couldn’t understand their language. While she was thinking of that several more people entered the bridge. They, like everyone else wore primitive space suits. From the way they looked at her it was obvious that they are studying her. She stood still and watched them as well. And at the same time she continued to check the ships systems.