Into the Sea of Stars

Chapter 5

Colonial Unit 181

First Completion Date: 2031

Primary Function: Standard Japanese Colonial/Manufac turing Unit

Evacuation Date: Estimated June 2083, one of the first units recorded to have completed its conversion and departure.

Overall Design: Standard Mitsubishi Design Unit Double Torus. Maximum Population Potential (MPP) of 37,500 with standard mix of software/hardware industry and experimental design work on self-replicating processing system.

Propulsion: Solar Sail with matter/antimatter boost.

Course: Galactic Core.

Political/Social Orientation: Hierarchical Corporate Model with head of each family responding to subsystem leader. Standard Social Orientation and Interactive Systems.

"Program engage, jump-down to match V-l, target Al pha, close to point zero zero one A.U., engage."

Stasz turned in his couch and smiled at the rest of the crew. "Be sure you're strapped in," he said with a laugh. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out the half-chewed stub of an unlit cigar and waved it at Shelley.

"You sure that belt is strapped tight? I don't want you falling out of your couch, the way you did last time," He reached over as if to help her, but she hurriedly showed him that it was snugged in tight around her hips and the cross belting of the shoulder harness was properly se cured.

A high-pitched warning Klaxon sounded-the thirty- second mark to jump down.

"Don't worry, folks, this one ain't so dangerous. Only a point twenty-four percent probability of disintegration."

"How reassuring," Ellen whispered.

It was their second jump of the day, the last one having been completed only minutes earlier. They had closed in on their target and jumped down to a relative speed of zero in relation to their original trajectory. But since the target was in fact inbound toward Earth, they were taking a short jump to close to maneuvering range.

"Ten seconds and sequencing start."

Ian could feel the inertia-dampening system hum to life, and it was almost a signal for his stomach to get ready with its usual reaction.

The jump-down hit. Overall velocity was still sublight so the effects weren't too bad, but it still took Shelley several minutes to help Ian with his post-jump cleanup.

Ian could hear the soft gasps of astonishment from Richard and Ellen, and looking past his own tragic prob lems, he saw a sight that was stunning, after weeks of Doppler-shifted light.

Even from thousands of K out, the sails of the vessel filled a good part of their visual range.

"Look, Ian, I think it's a double torus," Shelley said.

Ian realized that for the first time she wasn't calling him Dr. Lacklin.

Ian looked to Stasz's radar display and Shelley's keen vision was confirmed by the screen. A standard double torus. Not the most efficient design, but fairly popular nevertheless.

"Do you have any idea which one it is?" Ellen asked.

"Too early to tell. Shelley, could you access my ship configuration data file? Cross-check it with known double torus designs that headed out on this trajectory."

She started working while the others fell into silence as the vessel and its sails filled an ever-larger portion of their field of view. Stasz had programmed their jump to perfection, with just enough residual velocity so they could safely close in.

Ian suddenly realized he was trembling. He wasn't sure if it was from fear, anticipation, or, most likely, a healthy mixture of both.

"I know how you feel, my dear friend," Richard said, patting him on the shoulder. "The first night of my mar riage to Ethel, I was trembling just like you."

"And she was most likely trembling with disgust until she finally got that divorce," Ellen whispered sotto voce.

It broke the tension enough that all of them could laugh for a minute.

As they watched, the double ring came closer into view, so that its central support shaft could soon be made out in the faint glow of deep space starlight.

"Have you set the radio for the frequencies I suggested?" Ian asked.

"The signal will pulse out on all frequencies you mentioned, along with several I think might be worth looking into."

Ian activated his headset and nodded for Stasz to open the line.

He looked around at his colleagues and tried to conjure up the correct words in Old English.

"This is Earth vessel Discovery calling, Earth vessel Discovery. Please respond."

Nothing.

"Asleep at the switchboard most likely," Stasz said in a reassuring voice. "Hell, there can be times when no one is on the com for hours. I daresay they don't expect a visitor to drop in every day, the way we do."

"This is Earth research vessel Discovery approaching and requesting docking information."

"Ah, Dr. Lacklin, try Japanese," Shelley said.

"How's that?"

"According to your data, there were twenty-three double torus designs, of which eight used sails. And of those eight, six were Japanese."

He tried to remember his Old Japanese, and after a minute or so, he believed he got off a reasonable message. Still no response, so Stasz looped recording of lan's re quest while they settled back.

"These ships have automatic piloting systems that detect and give alarm for any object bigger than a pea that approaches within ten thousand K," Ian said softly. "It could be that no one has gotten into the control room yet. If anyone's alive in there."

"There's significant damage to the sail area," Stasz interjected. "Number of lines parted, numerous punctures, I detect holes larger than one K in the central area. And I think we're picking up a reading here that indicates a significant holing on the main shaft of the vessel."

"We'll soon know," Ian muttered as they continued to close in.

Ian had read about them for years and had watched them on countless videos, but nothing, absolutely nothing had prepared him for the sheer awesome size of a colonial unit. It filled the entire sky, as if it would somehow en compass the universe. Nothing in his experience could possibly compare with the massive double-curve sweep of the twin torus that slowly wheeled on either side of them as they closed in toward the docking ring on the main shaft.

The sheer mass of the object was enough to create a minor gravitational disturbance that required Stasz to pro vide a slightly increased deceleration as they closed in.

As the four of them floated toward the docking bay, Shelley passed out hard copies of the ship's design and schematics of the blueprints now that the particular des ignation of the ship had been confirmed by exterior mark ings. They had already detected half a dozen unrepaired holes in the vessel, one of them a twenty-meter puncture through the main shaft. So there was little if any hope of finding any life.

Ian was dreading the encounter for fear of what he would find. In the three hours of closing there had been no signal of any kind. There was no sign of interior lighting and no heat dissipation from the coolant radiators.

Sealing himself into his bulky pressure suit, Ian settled into the docking bay and waited, listening intently as Stasz called out the ever-closing range.

There was a faint jar as the adjustable docking unit connected with the hull of the other ship. The green light over the docking-bay hatch turned yellow, and he could feel the pressure suit crinkling as the docking chamber depressurized.

The light overhead changed to red. Ian looked at the other three and nodded. There they were, four heroes, ready to go forward in the name of Democratic Bureau cracy. Four heroes, and he couldn't help but laugh, his high-pitched giggle sounding somewhat foolish and slightly hysterical.

He punched the button in front of him and the hatch slid open. They were locked up against the side of the colony, pressed against a nonrotating collar in the middle of the central shaft. A manual docking door was in front of him, instructions in Japanese, English, and Russian written across it.

Within seconds he had deciphered their meaning, and, grabbing the two handles alongside the door, Ian attempted to rotate them.

He spun in the opposite direction.

After several minutes of cursing and sweating, the other three helped brace him into position and he tried again.

As if on rusted hinges, the handles gave way slowly then suddenly they broke free and started to spin of their own volition. The doorway slid open. A slight puff of air came out of the ship. Ian looked up and his mind blanked out in horror as the ship's radio overloaded with his hys terical screams.

Ellen was back in the corner, still clawing at the escape latch back into their own ship, which would not open with the outside door unlatched. Yes, he could see that now. Panicked, Ian looked around, the only sound his own convulsive breathing and Ellen's soft whimpers coming over the radio set.

"Ian, it's all right, it's all right." It was a soft, soothing voice. Richard, yes, it was Richard.

He could feel the hands on his shoulder. His friend's face was barely visible behind the helmet, and his own vision was obscured by the moisture from his hyperven- tilation.

He looked back and started to turn his head.

"No, not yet, Ian. Don't look back until you're ready."

"What-" He started to sob again. "What-Richard, what is it?"

"It's a body, Ian," Richard said softly, "it's nothing but a body mummified by the low pressure and dry air. It can't hurt you now, Ian. He just gave you a start when the change in pressure made him drift out of the airlock toward you."

"Yeah, just a start." Ian could feel his self-possession on the edge of falling apart again.

"Take a few more deep breaths and when you feel ready you can turn around."

"Where is he?"

"Shelley moved him back into the colony's airlock. She's waiting for us in there. I'm going over to Ellen now." He let go of Ian, and, pushing off from the wall, he floated over to where Ellen hung like a cat clinging to a sheer wall. Her sobbing still filled the headset.

Ian took a couple of more deep breaths and slowly turned.

As she poked around the interior of the colony's air lock, Shelley was barely visible except for her headlamp. While she searched around, she absently hung on to the mummified body with one hand.

Bracing himself, Ian pushed forward into the ship.

"Dr. Lacklin, I've found the airlock into the main cor ridor of the central shaft.

"Wait a minute, we better close the hatch behind us before continuing on in."

Ian looked back toward Richard and Ellen.

"Go on without us," Richard said. "I'm taking Ellen back in and giving her a stress pill."

Stress pill! Hell, he was the one the damn mummy banged into. Out of the corner of his eye he examined the body that Shelley was still hanging on to. A cold grimace of desiccated flesh and bone stared back at him out of lifeless, haunting sockets. He looked away.

Shelley, ignoring his fear, floated back to the docking door and closed it. Looking around the room, she noticed some Velcro stripping along one wall and without any ceremony pushed the mummy up against it. The fastabs on the body's uniform locked him into place. Leaving him on the wall, she floated back to Ian.

As she passed by him there was a flash of a smile that made Ian shudder. She was enjoying this!

"Want me to open this one?" she asked.

He nodded and closed his eyes. Would he ever be able to open a door again?

She turned the handle. There was a faint whisper of air as the pressure equalized. Something bumped against him. He wanted to scream, but with a supreme effort he repressed it. Opening his eyes, he discovered that Shelley was up against him.

He half suspected that she had banged into him on purpose, and a slightly mischievous smile almost confirmed it. There were no bodies inside, however, and to gether they pushed into the main corridor and started to explore.

"Shelley, Ian, this is Stasz. You better prepare for your return. Your in-suit reserve is below twenty percent."

Ian checked the elapsed time on his arm-mounted watch. Nearly six hours and not one percent of the vessel explored. They hadn't even gotten out of the main shaft area.

The sheer number of bodies overloaded his senses, but he had slowly grown inured to their presence or he was simply in shock and the reaction would hit later.

The forms of death were varied and frightening. Every where the dead leered at them, some gently floating by as the opening of long-locked blast doors and passage ways triggered gentle currents in air that had not moved for centuries. Most of the cabins still held some air, but neither Shelley nor Ian dared to remove their helmets to try it. The command and control enter had been totally destroyed by a hulling-the impact that had punched a twenty-meter hole clear through the vessel with an egress puncture nearly fifty meters across.

Most of what they explored were various access pas sageways, docking terminals, and the guidance center for the ship's sails, where half a dozen desiccated forms were still strapped to their couches.

"Dr. Lacklin, I'm in what appears to be a communi cations center on level three, section four. Would you please join me?"

Turning about, he floated back up the corridor that she had followed only moments before. He pushed past a small body that held an even smaller form to its breast- he didn't look closer.

There was a faint light coming out of a room. He pushed his way in and to his surprise found that she had managed to locate a backup lighting system that could still function. A soft, diffused light radiated from overhead panels.

Shelley noticed his look of surprise. "Apparently the power grid hooking into this area is still intact and there are some backup batteries."

The room was circular with a number of windows on one side that looked out over the docking bay. As Ian went up to the window, he could see the Discovery docked on the next level down, or at least in the direction that his feet were pointing.

"It looks as if they stayed alive in here for some time after whatever it was hit them." She pointed to a number of boxes and empty emergency food containers that floated in the room along with the four bodies.

"Poor bastards. Damn it, Shelley, there must have been close to forty thousand living here. I'd have thought that damage control could have brought this ship on line again."

"I've been thinking about that, Dr. Lacklin. Look at the damage. Primary ship functioning area totally de stroyed. Power reactor destroyed, main communications, data storage banks, and transport lines to the two wheels, damaged or destroyed. Eight major hull hits, all to vital areas. Two or three at the same time they could have bypassed and still managed to restore service. But not eight at once. Taking out those eight at the same time was fatal, and the occupants stayed trapped in each of their emergency chambers till the oxygen ran out. It's possible some might have lasted for weeks. What a horrible death…" Her voice trailed off.

"You think there's any chance of calling up ship's rec ords?"

"Just a moment, Doc."

Shelley floated to the far corner of the room and hovered next to a body. For several minutes she twisted the body back and forth and suddenly the hand snapped off the body. He could hear a faint cry of dismay and felt at least a little pleasure at the realization that even Shelley was affected by this charnel house.

"Dr. Lacklin, how good are you at deciphering Old Japanese?"

"Not too good. I can speak it, but that's about it."

"Damn, this body had a notebook clutched to it. It might be worth looking at."

"I have the dictionaries back aboard ship."

"Speaking of back aboard ship," Stasz interrupted again, "listen, Doc, I have no desire to board that graveyard in search of your bodies. You're down to seventeen percent of reserve so would you kindly get your butts back where they belong. Shelley, at least get your butt back, I like it better than our rotund professor's gludius maximus, or whatever it is that Croce calls it."

Shelley started for the door still holding the notebook with the clawlike hand clinging to one side. Ian turned away for a moment and looked back out the port. His view was framed by the two wheels, above and below him, spinning slowly against the backdrop of an endless sea of stars. All the key points of the vessel struck, prob ably simultaneously-dooming all aboard. He looked out across the stars and shivered.

"I figured I should share this with all of you. I must confess that it changes the complexion of this mission"- Ian hesitated for a moment-"perhaps to the point of abandonment."

He looked around the room at his companions. Coming from a desk-bound civilization where meetings were the form of business, and the form required desks and chairs, the concept of a meeting in zero G had a slightly ridiculous quality. There were no desks to define territory and no seating with the leader at the head. Rather they floated around a room and copies of paperwork were tossed back and forth after being attached to clipboards. Stasz wasn't helping matters any by floating upside down relative to the rest of them.

Ian tried to gauge their reactions. The meeting was more a ritual; they already knew the information to be discussed and a general feeling had already been arrived at. But he wanted to be sure.

"Look, Ian," Ellen said quietly, "this happened nearly three hundred years ago. Three hundred years ago our Democratic Bureaucracy was at war with the Chin. Today the Chin are our closest allies."

"Let me go over it one more time, Ellen. And anyhow, I think you as a collective psychologist should know the theories of Constant Social Lines in relationship to an isolated society."

"It's a theory and I'm out here to prove it or disprove it, that's why I think this is absurd."

"Let's hear him out, Ellen, then you can attack him."

Ellen glared at Richard, who returned her stare with a mock bow that sent him tumbling head over heels until Shelley helped to stabilize him.

"Here we go then," Ian stated as formally as he could, but his voice was pitched too high and the nervousness showed.

"I've worked five days straight on the translations. In the interim Stasz and Richard managed to explore part of one torus and I think we can confirm that absolutely no one is left alive in there." He gestured vaguely toward the window where silhouetted on either side were the twin wheels rotating on their endless journey.

"This unit departed Earth in the year 2083 and is re ferred to as Unit 181. I've provided you with all my notes concerning its history. We've retrieved some Holo core memories but I don't have the equipment to use them.

"Several more notebooks have been recovered and I plan to analyze them, but I think the first one is good enough to go on."

He looked down at the notepad strapped to his knee.

"Most of the notes in the book were poetry. Rather nice stuff, called haiku. Our long-dead friend Miko was a sensitive individual. A longer poem on page twenty- three of the notebook gives us an interesting clue. He describes the blue sun of his childhood, which he now misses. Stasz and I have checked it out and this vessel could have come out of Delta Sag. Which means these people made it to a star eighty-two light-years from Earth and, as near as I can estimate, spent only twenty-odd years in orbit about that star and then began the long journey back to Earth. There are in fact four references to this sun. The next to the last poem is not a haiku, but more in the tradition of the nineteenth-century Romantics. In that poem the writer speaks of the mission they have set.

To warn our forefathers in halls undreamed,

And seek again the light that was,

As we speak to the gods of the sleeping giant,

Revenge of their sons, long dreamed dead.

Ian looked around the room again. The rest were silent. He had a brief mental flash of the vacant staring faces that had populated his classroom. But these people were listening to him, and he felt a surge of satisfaction.

"The last statement is a diary-type entry that makes one thing very plain-they were attacked. I'll read the last entry."

He knew this was rather pedantic, but he couldn't help but play on the dramatic; after all, he was a historian.

" 'It is seventy-four hours since the Alpha/ Omega strike. I look out at our twin wheel, our home, our world. The lights are still on in the Ag section, batteries…' The next line is illegible and then picks up again. 'My eyes see, but they cannot make me believe. My entire world is dying, it is dying and they have murdered us. Murdered us. It is the end and there is nothing. Our crypt shall journey across the sea of eternity, a voyager of quiet death. And so I join the others as the lights of my world fade away forever.

Ian felt a strange turmoil within. The young poet had written this to him, far more sure of the immortality of his verse than any Earthly poet. For in space the script would last, like its poet, for eternity.

"I've backplotted the heading," Stasz interjected, breaking the melancholy silence. "If acceleration ceased at current speed they would have left Delta Sag three hundred and ninety-seven years ago."

"How far to Delta Sag, Stasz?" Ellen asked.

"Two months."

Ellen looked at Ian with a challenging smile.

Ian hesitated, trying to buy time. "We've got to be logical about this one. First there is a wealth of infor mation aboard this ship. This could keep an archaeological team busy for the next century. It's the first time anyone from our modern age has stepped aboard a vessel from the twenty-first century."

"Come on, Ian, stop being such a historian and start thinking like an explorer," Ellen replied. "I'm not interested in dead things, I want living people to sample. One of those things"-and she shuddered, — "in there might interest you as you cut 'em up to see what they had for breakfast, but that information is useless in my book. They came from this Delta Sag, I want to go there and find out more."

"There's the next point to consider, as well. This col ony was murdered. Someone or something out there killed them. They could kill us!"

Now his emotions were taking hold.

They hesitated for a moment on that one and Ian pressed in. "I think we should stay here, study this one in further detail, and knowing there is something hostile out here, we have every legitimate excuse to return back home, report our findings, and then get back to our lives."

"From what I've heard of your Chancellor," Stasz interjected, "I don't think the sight of you four would be very welcome."

"To hell with the welcome," Ian replied. "What can he do to us? We found a colony and that's that."

"A dead one, Ian," Richard said. "I think our dear Chancellor is more interested in living proof than a float ing morgue. Remember his famous comment at last year's board meeting: 'I am not an intellectual, I am an admin istrator.' That administrator will not be pleased with a dead Colonial Unit 181. He'll want live finds, finds that occur after the three years mandated by his office. Anyhow, my curiosity is aroused. Hell, we've come this far, why not finish it and go on to Delta Sag?"

"I'm curious, too," Stasz said.

Ian knew they were beating him; he had expected that from the beginning. For some strange reason their curi osity had been whetted. The fear of this attacker now acted like a candle drawing the moth in.

He looked at Shelley, but her only response was a shrug and a smile. Finally she leaned over and whispered.

"Come on, Ian, stop acting like a historian. The people aboard that ship are dead. Think of the chance of meeting some that are alive."

Ian looked back out at the turning wheel. A rumble ran through the Discovery and suddenly there was a faint return of gravity as Stasz piloted them up between the twin toruses. A flickering glow shone through the com munications bay of Colonial Unit 181, and in the cold light he could make^out the bodies floating on their eternal voyage.

At least that fear was gone. He had felt himself encased within a haunted fragment of the universe, as the souls of the dead still traveled on a journey that in another seven hundred years would bring them within sight of their an- cestoral home.

He knew, as well, that even though they were departing, the ghosts would stay with his soul. The ghosts would come to haunt him in his nightmares of bodies floating in out of the darkness.

Stasz rotated the Discovery, and the nav computers took over. Soon they were pointed straight in at a steady blue light. Ian closed his eyes and braced for the jump that would take them to Delta Sag and the answer that all but he wanted.