Taking Space

Mysterious Ship

A minute later, the drone entered the clearing around the giant invisible ship.

Dan brought it to a halt. “Well, now we find out if the stealth fibers still work even with Steven’s modifications.”

“They should,” Steven asserted.

“Yeah, but if they don't...”

“They will.”

“Powering down the ship, so we don't get detected,” Michael said, as he turned off the light and everything else, leaving only the radar and the view screen up.

The ship’s gentle hum disappeared as the star in the dynovamator went dormant again.

A small light flashed, showing that they were now using a set of batteries that Steven had set up for their power.

“Okay, go ahead.”

Daniel slowly nudged the drone forward until it bumped the ship.

The silhouette of the ship rippled outwards. Once again, hundreds if not thousands of dots appeared on the radar.

Everyone held their breath, waiting to see if the fake asteroids would open fire on their drone.

They didn't. Daniel breathed a sigh of relief and pushed a button.

One of the added arms on the drone unfolded and lightly touched the ship again.

A new screen lit up, showing an outline of the exterior of the ship.

Their eyes scanned over it until Catherine pointed and said, “There! That looks like a hatch.”

“Good eye.” Daniel carefully brought the drone about. “Let's hope this thing is not rigged to blow when a hatch is forced open, like some games have them.”

“Whoa let's make sure it doesn’t,” Steven said.

“How?” Daniel asked.

“By hacking it open of course. Here get out of the seat for a bit.” Steven said.

“But you have never hacked a ship before!” Daniel protested. 

“True but I've read up about it so move over.” Steven pushed.

Daniel sighed and relinquished the pilot seat to Steven.

Steven sat down and carefully maneuvered both of the arms he had taken from the hacking probes. Slowly, he cut around the control panel to the hatch, until he was able to touch the electronics with one of the arms.

The screen that had been displaying the exterior of the ship blinked and displayed thousands of lines of code that no one but Steven could possibly understand.

Three minutes crawled by, and Steven started to sweat profusely, then he began to breathe hard.

“You okay?” Stephanie asked, worriedly.

“The hacking drone is supposed to have programs to automatically do this type of stuff but this stupid ship is too stinking old for it to recognize and these arms are junk, so I'm having to manually override it and... and well I'm not sure what I'm doing.”

“Maybe we should just force it then,” Daniel suggested.

“No! You were right. From the code, I can read it is indeed rigged to blow. Whatever this ship is someone didn't want it to fall into the wrong hands.”

“So hacking is the only way in. What if you mess up?” Daniel asked.

“Boom,” Steven replied tersely.

Michael stood up, walked over, and put one hand on Steven's shoulder. “Father, you have got us this far. I ask that you would give Steven wisdom and guidance now.”

Steven looked a little agitated, but he let himself relax and said, “Thank you.” He turned back to work.

“Oh, yes. I think I think. I got it.” He said a few minutes later. “I rewrote the program’s code to recognize this ship’s ancient stuff. And, and it's... working! Yes!”

The hatch popped open. “Woot!” Steven jumped up and did a little jig. “I did it. I did it I did it!”

“Good job!” Michael said as he patted Steven on the back.

“I knew you could do it,” Catherine said, with a smile.

Daniel reached out and rubbed his head. “Good job, bro.”

“That's our Steven, able to do anything he sets his mind to,” Stephanie said as she stood up. She shivered. “And not a moment too soon. It’s getting cold.”

“We’re not out of this yet. Dan, you need to take the drone to the cockpit so I can take direct control of the ship then hopefully use it to come and get us.” Steven said.

Daniel nodded. He sat back down in the pilot seat, and flew the drone to the hatch, into the ship.

The hatch closed. The small chamber compressed, then opened another hatch.

“Ah good, the artificial gravity is not on. If it were, it’d be a serious pain. Now let's hope these anti-security bots work.” Daniel pushed a button. A handful of pea-sized droids spewed forth, then dispersed. In seconds, they had all disappeared into the ship.

“Well, I guess that's a good sign?” Daniel said.

Steven nodded. “I don't know much about assassin drones protocols, but with how much this thing must have cost I'm sure those robots will do their job.”

“You don't think they will have a problem with how old this ship is like the hacking did?” Michael asked.

“No,” Steven said. “The hacking probes we cannibalized are trash their main proposes was for hacking the star way and illegally listening in on communications. Hacking old doors is not what they were designed for. On the other hand there are thousands of locations with ancient security system still in use. And something like this assassin drone has to be able to be used any were. As such I'm sure it is well versed in old stuff and will work as it supposed to.”

“Let hope your right,” Michael replied.

Daniel impatiently flew the drone in small strafing circles as they waited. “Just how long do we have to wai-”

He was cut off by a screen popping up that read, “Presence masking: successful.”

“Ah, finally!” Daniel declared. “I can go in now, right?”

Steven shrugged. “I would think.”

Daniel nudged the drone through the open hatch. A small camera on the far wall hissed as it swiveled towards the drone. Daniel knew it was just big enough to be seen to let you know that you were being watched. He waited, expecting alarms to go off, but none did.

“Well, that's a relief.” Daniel blandly stated and guided the assassin drone further into the ship.

He glided through the ship’s corridors until he came into a wide-open area.

“Well, would you look at that!” Daniel exclaimed.

Michael whistled.

Stephanie let out a puff of air. “Well, there's why there are so many of those g*n emplacements.”

“It's a factory.” Catherine breathed.

“Yes, and it’s making laser guns and installing them into fake asteroids. From the looks of it, I'd say it's probably been doing it for hundreds of years.” Michael said.

“Most likely,” Steven agreed. “And this whole thing makes a little more sense now, but I wonder where it is getting the resources for all this and how it's getting them out there after they're made.”

Daniel pushed the drone forward. “I'm sure we'll figure that out eventually, but first, let's get us out of here. It's getting rather chilly. Mike, can you turn on the heat please?”

Michael shook his head. “No, the radar is still showing thousands of guns. To turn on the heat, I'd have to turn back on the dynovamator.”

“Oh. Yeah, I guess that wouldn't be a good idea.” Daniel mumbled, and continued to fly the drone through the gigantic factory towards the front of the ship.

Steven threw out one hand and pointed. “Hey stop, look over there!”

“Wow, what in the world is that?” Daniel asked as he brought the drone to a halt.

“I don't know fly over,” Steven told him.

Daniel did as he said and Catherine said, “It looks like an ancient Starway ring. There are still a few old ones in use.”

As they looked at it, the thing came on and connected to someplace outside of the ship. Two small drones pushed an asteroid so large it barely fit through the ring. The asteroid floated on into the factory, where it was grabbed by mechanical arms. Once inside and secured small lasers began to dissect it.

“Well, that’s how it gets the resources. “Daniel stated, rather amused.

“What in the world did we just see!?” Steven half screamed.

“A Starway inside of a ship,” Stephanie said placidly.

Steven about blew his top. “That's not possible. A Starway uses graviton waves to fold and shrink spaces, but it must have a clear view of the next ring, and nothing can be in its way. This thing just went through a solid wall!”

Stephanie frowned, not understanding why he was so worked up. “Doesn't your pinhole do the same thing?”

“Yes, because it sends only frequencies and frequencies can go through other objects,” Steven explained. “But other solid objects cannot go through solid objects!”

“Oh,” Stephanie answered, and waved at Daniel to continue on.

Daniel shrugged and started to fly the drone forward once more.

“What are you doing?! STOP! What we just saw is impossible on so many levels of science... We have to figure this out! “

“Not now, we don't. I'm starting to freeze. If we don't get out of here soon, we are all going to be icicles.” Stephanie scolded.

“Fine,” Steven mumbled and produced a glowing screen in his hand as he started to mumble things to himself.

Daniel kept the drone going checking each corridor until he atlas found the cockpit or command deck rather. The massive spherical room was completely empty, except for two seats floating in the air, extended on what looked like shock-absorbent shafts.

Catherine pointed. “There! That seat with the dead guy in it. It looks like the captain's seat.”

Daniel flew up to it, and quickly stood up out of the pilot seat, rubbing his freezing hands. “Steven, put down that hologram and get over here and do your thing before we freeze to death.”

Steven frowned at him, but closed his hands, turning off whatever he had been looking at and took over.

Daniel shivered as he glanced around. He noticed that there were ice sickles forming along the cockpit walls. “Can we please turn on the heat!?”

“I dare not until Steven turns off those fake asteroids,” Michael told him once again through chattering teeth.

“Steven hurry it up!” Daniel exclaimed.

However, Steven was still just looking down at the controls.

Daniel glared at his younger brother. “What are you doing? Get on with it!”

“Something seems to be still running,” Steven muttered, then spat. “Don't push me. If I mess up we will die!”

Daniel fell into silence as Steven moved the drone around, looked at the controls, until at last, he said, “Ah.” and moved the drone's arm to hit a button.

“Recording stopped. Playback message before sending?” The ship’s male mechanized voice played threw the drone's mics.

Steven glanced over at the others. Michael said, “Yes.”

Steven used the drone's arm to tap yes.

On the forward screen of the ship, an image of the dead man appeared. The right side of his face was crushed and badly burned; the other side was completely covered in blood. He started to speak, an action which seemed to take great effort. “Brothers, I have failed the...” The man swallowed hard. A teardrop rolled down his left cheek, making a streak through the blood. “The Valdarians used a type of new weapon on us, but it malfunctioned and... “He swallowed again, losing his strength and composer. “They are all dead. All of them. Both civilizations... The men are... there's nothing left of the Core... We have failed... I… I—” the man slumped, and breathed his last. The recording continued, oblivious of his death.

Steven stopped the playback.

“Do you wish to send the message now?” The male voice asked.

Steven moved the arm and hit no.

They all sat silently in the cold.