The Cartographer Collection

5. Passing The First Test-2

rattled“Wait!”

Satou turned and stood in the open doorway. “No more questions for now, Nathan. I am needed elsewhere.”

“OK, then I"m going with you,” I replied.

Satou stepped in the room and let the door slide closed behind him, his face told me what he thought of the idea. “I am afraid I am unfamiliar with the human sense of humor. Was that a joke?”

“I wasn"t making a joke. If you people expect me to be your Cartographer and assist you with exploring the universe, galaxies, planets or whatever it is you expect me to do, then I expect to be involved in situations that may arise, don"t ya think?”

Satou"s brow folded upon itself in deep thought as he contemplated the validity of my logic.

He crossed his arms and nodded slightly. “I agree with your statement, but I warn you that Natronix may not embrace your idea nor your presence upon the bridge.”

I followed him out the door and down the hall toward a row of transparent doors where I watched while elevator compartments zoomed up and down to the decks above and below us. Several crew members walked past us throwing respectful nods to Satou and curious glances toward me. I marveled at the variety of races aboard the ship. An Orgellian stomped by, his enormous feet sounding like a bass drum as they slammed against the metallic floor, a squat humanoid with a face similar to a rabbit (later discovered to be a Kamilian) shot me a toothy smile before a dark-skinned humanoid with an angular face, bleached white hair and pointy ears (a Drith-nar, Satou told me) walked past, looking at us suspiciously.

The elevator door swung open and we stepped inside. I saw no buttons of any kind and wondered how we would get to where we needed to go.

“Deck one, code Satou-Epsilon-Nine,” Satou called out and the elevator ascended. The door opened on deck one before I had the chance to even ask what Satou-Epsilon-Nine meant.

Satou-Epsilon-NineWe stepped onto the bridge and he turned to me, answering my unspoken question. “In order to gain access to the bridge deck, one has to be authorized and speak the code.”

“Oh,” I responded while admiring the scene of the bridge.

Several circular lights overhead illuminated the scene before me. There were no windows of any kind which surprised me, but later Satou explained to me that the Cirrus was more like a submarine floating through space and less like a space bus. Several large monitors dotted the room and were manned by different alien races. Some looked like Satou, some looked like Madoc, others looked different but bared a striking resemblance to other aquatic animals and I wondered if these particular races had been chosen because they were naturally adept at flying spacecraft. Natronix sat in an elevated chair and peered through a periscope, gripping the handles so hard his knuckles were white. Calypso stood next to him with his arms folded and a serious look about him and as soon as we entered the bridge, he turned toward us and frowned.

“Um, Satou do I even need to ask?” he said with a cursory glance toward me.

“I know, sir, but he insisted on coming along with me,” Satou said and nodded at me. “He made a very compulsive argument.”

“Oh?” Calypso raised an eyebrow. Natronix peered his head around the periscope, rolled his eyes and returned his attention to whatever he had been looking at.

Satou walked over to one of the monitors and put his hands on his hips. Without looking at Calypso, he presented my “sound” logic for being on the bridge. Calypso listened intently and nodded, accepting my point of view.

Shortly afterward, Madoc burst onto the bridge, breathing heavily. Luckily this time he was wearing a translator and I discovered that the elevator had been taking too long on the medical deck and he jogged up the emergency access stairs to get to the bridge. I wasn"t sure how far the medical deck was but judging by Madoc"s flushed face and struggles for air, it couldn"t have been close by.

Calypso turned to Natronix and put a hand on his shoulder. “Any sign yet?”

Natronix shook his head without removing his eyes from the periscope. Calypso turned toward them and rubbed his chin.

“Well, the reason Natronix called us here is that we may have a situation.” He turned toward an object that looked like a large table you might find in a giant"s kitchen. It was oval with a flat glass-like surface and stood about eight feet in diameter.

Calypso opened a panel on the surface and punched several buttons. Suddenly a holographic image of an aircraft carrier floated above the surface. As I moved in to take a closer look, I realized that it only slightly resembled an American aircraft carrier. It was long, rectangular and flat on the surface, however instead of a bow along the front, there was a hangar-like entrance and I could see the outlines of several smaller space vessels nestled inside. There was a rising tower located at the rear of the vessel which appeared to be the bridge. Neon lights surrounded the ship, illuminating hidden ports containing steel barrels of cannons, lasers, machine guns or whatever type of weaponry these people used. The reflection of the holographic image highlighted Calypso"s facial features, giving his red eyes and hard face an eerie glow and making him appear like a demon, ready to cast his judgment on all mankind.

“The Argus?” Madoc asked, staring at the image.

Calypso nodded while the image spun, creating a 3-D, panoramic view of the vessel. He looked over at a crew member who turned several knobs and listened intently to a cylindrical device attached to his ear. He reached up and adjusted a small antenna protruding from the mechanism. After frantically playing with the antenna, he turned toward Calypso and shook his head.

Calypso took a deep breath and looked at Natronix who rested his arms on the periscope handles and frowned.

Satou turned from the monitor he had been examining. “What is wrong with the Argus?”

Calypso scanned the room and placed his hands on his head. He moved to each of the various monitors with a sense of urgency and his uneasiness created a small knot in my stomach.

“It"s gone.”