Chapter 6
The Gleaming Door
On the first day of endweek, Keelic found himself awake early in the morning, thankful for not having to board the bus. As the rising sun sent orange shafts of light through his windows, he daydreamed about Leesol.
Sitting up abruptly, he checked his parents’ bedroom in the other tower. The window blinds were open. They were up already. He gathered his exploration gear and laid it out on the bed.
"Come on," he said to the still dormant alien. Then he gave him a shove and ran down the stairs.
His parents were in the breakfast room on the west side of the house.
His mother looked up and said, "Good morning, Kee. You’re up early for an endweek."
"Can I go on a hike?"
"I don’t see any reason why not. Carl?"
Keelic’s father glanced at the sky. "The weather is good. Anny, any Patamic stalks nearby?"
"None that will pose a threat for at least fifteen hours."
"You can go," said his father.
"Can I bring my friend?"
"Absolutely not," said his father. "We’re still observing him, and this is a foreign ecosystem for him."
"Please..."
"No."
Donning his suit, Keelic tried to think of a way to bring the alien along. Fully outfitted, he said to his friend, who had been looking at Keelic’s memories of earlier trips, "We have to change their minds. You have to tell them that you really want to go. We’ll both talk to them."
Strong blue affirmation.
The alien lowered his eyes in concentration, then jumped beside Keelic, looking ready to be off. They tromped down the stairs and approached his parents.
His father looked up from the table and said, "Ready?"
Tight lipped, Keelic nodded, preparing to speak.
His mother said, "I want you to program the stunner right now so that it will be sure to ignore the alien."
Keelic blinked.
"Yes," said his father.
His mother handed him two packages of food, sandwiches for him and a selection of the alien’s favorites.
Keelic searched their faces. Father was reading at the breakfast table, and mother was looking at him with calm expectation. He lowered his face to look at the stunner to program it, and asked the alien, Did you do this?
Puzzlement, yellow orange.
Twinges of fear and excitement ran through Keelic, and thinking yellow, he asked, Did you change their minds?
Affirmation, light blue.
Unsure how to react, he put the food into his pack. As long as it was this easy, there was something else he might need. "Dad, can I have a cling-to and a twine feeder?"
"What for?"
"Playing in the cave."
"No. You’ve only used them once. We’ll practice later."
Keelic thought, We have to have that equipment.
Affirmation.
"Please, Dad, I’ll be really careful."
"I suppose."
Keelic charged down to the equipment room in the basement and grabbed four cling-to’s and a twine feeder.
Anny and his parents wished him a good journey, and he and the alien stepped into the chill morning air. Heavy with moisture, it carried the chuck-a-whoop cries of the yuwabpa and strong scents from the forest below.
They dashed down the hill and into the forest. The alien leapt into the trees, and discovered as Keelic had that the leaf stems led naturally to flying acts. The alien whirled from tree to tree, Keelic running below shouting and hollering at each greater flight. Flipping end over end in a spectacular arc, the alien missed his landing and fell partway through the tree before catching himself. Embarrassed, a little frightened, and emitting mild red pain, the alien climbed down and hiked beside Keelic the rest of the way.
Diffused sunlight lit the greenery-covered bluff. The alien explored the mouth of the cave where the stream, no longer blue, poured down in a muddy torrent. Keelic climbed up beside it using netvines, then struggled into the cave against the current. Everything was awash inside, but deep only at the mouth where it was dammed.
They waded to the rear of the cave, the alien using the walls and roof. Keelic pulled the rifle from between the rocks. The alien watched Keelic activate the weapon’s scanner. Keelic played with the targeting selection and tried to get his friend to look through the scanner. After a while the alien lost interest. He put a leg into the pool. The water was murky with stirred-up sediment.
"It’s cold," said Keelic.
Ice blue affirmation.
"Let’s see if we can get to the top," said Keelic, putting the rifle back in its hiding place.
They walked along the cliff to the ramp, and began the ascent. The going was easier than they’d thought, and soon they were at the top, overlooking rolling hills encased in Patamic forest. Wind buffeted them, blowing Keelic’s hair and his friend’s fur. In the distance his home was visible on its hill. He thought of his father, mother, what he was about to attempt, and their reaction if they caught him. Something overhead caught his eye. He took out the far-scanner and watched an Ermolian flier soaring on high winds.
It was time to take care of something before going further. He brought up his communicator.
"Anny?"
"Here."
"Are you scanning me?"
"Not currently. Would you like me to?"
"No."
"I generally don’t, as you know."
"I want to explore this area alone."
"Like a true explorer?"
Anny always understood. The alien, catching Keelic’s mood, leapt up and caught a leaf stem, riding it up and down. Keelic grinned at him and checked his map to find the sinkholes. He took a bearing with his compass, and struck out across the forested bluff top.
Patamic trees were small here, only ten meters tall or less, and many were uprooted, their massive taproots ripped out of the black soil.
They came to the first wide depression. Using the far-scanner’s range finder, Keelic measured it at twenty meters across, ten deep, and nearly perfectly circular. No trees grew in the depression, only vines, stringy grass, and little mobile bushes. He climbed over a ridge at the edge and walked to the center, the bushes shuffling out of his way.
The ground gave way under him. With a cry, Keelic clutched at vines and stopped his descent. His friend grabbed him, and with surprising strength pulled Keelic up and away. Keelic crawled back to the edge of the hole and peered through the vines, but could not make anything out. "Can you see anything?"
The alien climbed in a short way.
Keelic’s vision doubled. He closed his eyes and saw a vine-obscured vision of water many meters below, and a large pile of soil and dead plants directly beneath the hole.
Keelic blinked away the alien’s sight, and took off his pack. He took out the twine and a pair of cling-to’s. Using his knife, he began digging. The alien crawled out of the hole and joined in the digging. They dug down four or five decimeters when Keelic’s knife struck something.
"There’s the stone," he said, panting.
Pushing dark soil from the bottom of the hole, Keelic stopped. The exposed stone was shiny smooth, like glass. He stabbed it with his knife, and left no mark. They cleared away enough space for the cling-to and tried to attach it, but it could not get purchase.
Defeated and puzzled, Keelic sat back on the pile of dirt they had made. He took a drink, got up and walked halfway up the slope, and began digging. About twenty centimeters down, he found the same thing. With the alien following, he went to the high edge of the depression, immediately finding the same material just below layers of netvines. Keelic cut them away and studied the strange formation. It looked almost as though it had been splashed out of the pit.
A chill ran through his body. He clambered up and stood on the edge. The alien became alert and hopped up beside him. Another chill ran through Keelic, and he gave a whoop, waving his knife in the air.
In response the alie
n leapt over Keelic, flipped in the air, and landed on the other side.
With his arms spread, Keelic said in awe, "It’s a pierce-beam crater."
They ran to the middle, and peered into its center.
"It means this bluff is artificial. Like Fort Blac on Darnell’s World. And destroyed like Fort Blac."
The alien evoked Keelic’s memory of the blasted and beam-riddled mountain fortress.
"We have to get inside."
The alien walked in and climbed down using the vines.
With his friend’s vision, Keelic saw a tunnel that opened into a vast chamber partially filled with water. Vines hanging down through the hole reached only a short way to the floor. There were doors and writing on the walls, but Keelic couldn’t read it. The alien looked around then tested the ceiling for purchase, climbed onto it, and began moving for a distant wall.
"Wait for me!" shouted Keelic, losing his friend’s vision. "If you can climb on the ceiling, put a cling-to on it."
Keelic hooked the twine feeder to his suit belt, fed the end of the twine through a cling-to, and let out six meters of slack. The alien, emerging from the hole, took the cling-to and disappeared. A moment later he gave Keelic a blue summons. Grabbing vines, Keelic let himself down into the hole. Straining at the bottom of the tunnel, he craned his neck to check the cling-to’s display for a secure hold. He asked the alien to work the cling-to panel to bring in the slack. Then he let go.
After a short, heart-stopping fall, he swung freely in the vines. The alien peered at him upside down from above. Twisting and swinging, Keelic peered around the chamber stretching away in echoing darkness. He was unable to see any of the details the alien had picked out.
"Yee!" he called. His voice echoed back, and again, reverberating for seconds.
Carefully he took off his pack, pulled out the lantern, and put the pack back on. A few taps on the lantern’s panel set it for high-intensity beam. First he looked to see what was under him.
A mound of mud and dead vines lay directly beneath him, creating a small island where light-starved plant shoots grew. The floor of the chamber was covered with water that didn’t look very deep, rippling in big rings from soil and vines fallen from Keelic’s descent. He shone the light around the chamber, lighting up walls. The chamber was rectangular, and vast. He found three doors, all closed. Keelic panned higher on the gray walls, and lost his grip on the lantern.
The wall had read:
TERRA CORPS
Lasiter Training Base Alpha
He mouthed the words. Alpha Base.
Alpha Base was a myth. Two hundred and fifty-eight years after the war, no one believed it existed. Legends were told and a thousand vids had been made about the secret base that trained the crews of the first epic super-ships of the Terra Corps. Knowledge of the development and construction of the battleships had been kept secret from the galaxy for years until the first ships were unleashed. The Terra Corps, in order to keep secret any idea of the scale of the vessel, labeled it an Attack Frigate rather than Battleship or Dreadnought, which were more appropriate. Names of captains, ships, battles flashed through Keelic’s mind, but he remembered most vividly his favorite vid, The Gleaming Door, story of the Revenge, first battleship to engage the Quat-lat Kay-ku at Alpha Centauri. The Battle of Centauri had been the first complete victory for the Terra Corps, and marked the turning point of the war. The beam weapons of the Lasiter Frigates were a match for those of the Quat-lat Kay-ku super-vessels, and no Quat-lat shield could withstand the massive dense-matter torpedoes hurled by the rail guns of the Lasiters.
The alien climbed down the vines next to him, echoing his feelings, but also hollow brown-umber hunger, and started opening Keelic’s pack.
"No. Wait till we get down," said Keelic in exasperation.
Mauve-umber impatience swirl.
"Climb on me. I’ll take us down."
The twine feeder lowered them gently to the mud pile. Keelic toppled with the alien’s extra weight, nearly falling into the water, which was deeper than it looked from above. He picked up the lantern, wiped mud off it, and shone it at the writing again. There was a large door below the words.
Before stepping into the water, he checked the stunner scanner. Nothing significant showed. He took a long look around the chamber with the lantern, turned on his hood, and squished off the mud hill into the meter-deep water.
His friend followed, and promptly sank to the bottom. Keelic moved to save him, but the alien emoted only mild pink concern, pale-yellow surprise, and cold. Fully extended, his eyes protruded above the water. He looked around and emitted safe orange to Keelic.
Unconvinced, Keelic asked, "Can you breathe?"
Yellow breathe?
Keelic remembered that his friend had no lungs. They made their way through the water toward the door below the lettering, stirring up sediment in the clear water. Something pulled on Keelic’s foot, and in a flash of fear he pointed the lantern to look.
Through clouds of silt, he saw the blue, green, red, and silver of the Terra Corps. Closer inspection showed that a uniform was draped across his foot. He held it up, and saw a rank insignia on the left shoulder. He squeezed it on top and bottom, and it came off in his hand just like the duplicates he had at home. Studying it, he could not remember what rank it signified, but it was nicer than any of his toys, and he attached it to the proper place on his suit.
Shining the lantern into the water, he found other things in the silt. He picked one up, and stood holding the object to the light. Dropping it with a shudder, he struggled to back up in the water, breathing hard.
The alien lowered an eye, took a close look at the teeth, and asked, yellow red fear?
"I’m not afraid," said Keelic, wondering how many decayed bodies were in the water, feeling its enveloping pressure against his suit.
The alien puzzled for a moment and returned yellow to Keelic, his reaction the moment he’d recognized the objects as teeth. Keelic tripped backward as adrenaline stabbed him again, and he went under.
"Vac-brain!" he shouted. "Don’t do that!"
The alien’s eyes retracted convulsively, and guilt flowed.
Keelic could not tell whether he felt his own guilt or his friend’s, but it did not matter. He pushed through the water to the alien, said and felt, "Apol."
The eyes raised somewhat. Keelic knelt underwater, trying to make his thoughts warm orange. Multiple legs curled around his arms and legs, and Keelic felt happy orange friendship.
As they continued wading, Keelic found more uniforms. He took their rank pins, putting them in a line on the left side of his chest. The uniforms had different patterns of colors, some he recognized as officer rank, others as enlisted. One had a pulse pistol on a belt. The belt was too large for him to wear, so he slung it over his shoulder.
The door below the lettering was huge. Recessed into the wall, it reminded Keelic of a docking port on a starship or station. His friend climbed up the wall to examine the door panel at Keelic’s head height. The alien pushed something on the panel before Keelic could object. The door split into four sections and started to slide away. His happiness turned to dismay as water began to flow into the hall beyond. The current pushed him toward the gap, but with the alien’s help he held on to the threshold, losing his grip on the lantern.
The current slowed. Under muddy water, the lantern lit the far end of the water-logged hall. Keelic stood in the darkness, heart thundering, arms aching. He was about to turn on his suit lights and start down the hall after the lantern, when another light caught his eye.
A large panel shed faint light in a small alcove beyond the entry. Keelic waded in to gaze up at it. He touched off his hood and studied it with barely suppressed excitement. The alien joined him. With a trembling hand, Keelic touched the main screen. It brightened to read:
Lasiter-Class Prototype Simulator
Simulator Shutdown Complete
Enter Private Key to Secure Simulator:
; He examined the pad below the screen, and turned to his friend. "Remember what I hit." He froze as another idea came to him. His hand slid to the side and he tapped Abort.
The screen went dark, then displayed "Simulator Status: Shutdown," with a menu beneath it showing Startup, Security, Maintenance.
Keelic touched Startup.
The primary screen read, "Simulator Startup Initialized."
He let out the breath he was holding and said, "It took it."
A formal female voice said, "Welcome aboard, sirs," and Keelic jumped back, sending up a splash of stale-smelling water that soaked his head. The voice continued, "I am encountering scanning anomalies. Seven rank insignia are detected, but only one human child, and one unidentified bioform."
Keelic looked at all the rank pins on his chest. Inspiration struck, and he said, "I am not a child. Your systems must be damaged."
There was a pause, "All localized scanners functioning within acceptable tolerances."
"Well, then, they aren’t damaged. I am a…new race, and ranked admiral. Keelic Travers, and this is my assistant. Check your systems again."
Keelic flashed a hopeful, expectant grin at his friend.
"Serial number?"
He tried to remember one from any vids he had seen, and the alien pulled up memories of four. Keelic picked one at random.
"Insignia fail to match. You are not logged."
The panel shut down, and Keelic stood in darkness. He touched the screen, but there was no response. Disappointment bit deep.
Perhaps the Announcer was still listening. They didn’t go offline. "How long has it been since you scanned anybody? Do you know the date? Things have changed. We, we are still at war. I’m here to assess your damage and see what’s here. How long have you been shut down?"
There was no response.
Keelic frowned and said, "Give me a damage report."
No answer.
There was one question you could always ask an Announcer. "What’s your name?"
"I am the Lasiter Alpha Simulator Announcer."
"Is that the only name you have?"
"I am also known as Zero Base Mechintelligence Alpha."
"Anything else?"
"Some personnel refer to me as Las-Ann."
"Las-Ann, I order you to give me control of this base under the order that says if an Ann cannot verify complete system integrity, she must transfer control to present officers."
"Verification of identity required."
Thinking hard, Keelic said, "How can you verify me if you are damaged? My insignia is that of admiral in the Alliance Defense League. You have my serial number. You can’t even read my insignia right. Things have changed in two hundred years. Who knows what other damage you have sustained? The Quat-lat Kay-ku may have sabotaged you to deny access. Run a full self-diagnostic and give me a damage report. If you’re too damaged to identify me, that means you have to give me control."
Moments passed and Keelic felt sure Las-Ann was going to deny him.
"Order accepted. You have command authority, Admiral Travers."
"Yes!" shouted Keelic, and danced in a circle, splashing water all over. "Yes! Yes! Yes!"
"Do you wish a diagnostic report, Admiral?"
Thrilled at the title, he replied, "Yes."
"Matrix datacore has sustained extensive physical and radiation damage. Announcer Functionality Index Three. Base—"
"Index Three?" asked Keelic.
"Logic only, sir. Nonsentient, non-self-governable. Base primary power, communications, shielding, weapons, environmental, and maintenance systems are nonfunctional. Emergency power fuel cells ninety-nine point eight percent exhausted. Simulator systems one-tenth of one percent functional at current power levels. Estimate casualties at one hundred percent. Additional sustained damage not verifiable."
"Turn on the lights, and start up the simulator!"
"Insufficient power, Admiral."
"Then turn on the lights just around us, and guide us to the bridge."
They picked up the lantern at the end of the hall then walked through gray corridors, the water flowing along with them shallower at each opened door, then rippling down dark, mysterious hallways. Some doors wouldn’t open so they took alternate routes.
The creeping waters reached their limit, and Keelic and the alien walked dripping onto a dusty floor. The halls and doors were unmarked and unremarkable until a last turn revealed a silvery wall of reflective metal, flawless. The Gleaming Door, entryway to the bridge of a Lasiter Attack Frigate.
He saw himself in reflection, pulse pistol over his shoulder, belt instruments, pack, tousled hair, alien by his side. Fierce pride rose, and he envisioned himself a warrior captain before the gates of the greatest starship ever.
"Admiral?" asked Las-Ann.
Startled by the voice out of silence, Keelic said, "What, yes?"
"I will need to shunt all available power in order to open the bridge doors. Is this acceptable?"
Keelic nodded once and said, "Go."
The lights went out, and Keelic touched on his suit lights. He watched the door split into spiral wedges that scythed away, exposing another gleaming layer that also split, and another until twelve layers were peeled back forming a round silver hall four meters deep. Walking forward, Keelic entered one of his dreams.
Awed disbelief suppressed emotion as his gaze caressed the broad chamber. It was circular, with a ring of outward-facing stations above the sunken center where a ten-meter holo display was ringed by seven massive operation stations. Three on the near end included the Command seat in the middle. The other four faced the Command station from the opposite side of the holo pit. Though all surfaces were matte black, there was lighting, soft and sourceless. Darklight cloth. The bridges of the Lasiter Frigates had been upholstered with the priceless Vewbon material that gave the human eye the effect of light without source, restful and the best environment in which to produce high-definition holograms.
Sensing Keelic’s state, the alien pushed against him emoting pink-orange concern. Keelic swayed and stepped sideways to catch himself before he fell over. He walked up to the railing that ringed the inner circle. His friend followed beside him, echoing some of Keelic’s feelings but with puzzled blue-yellow swirls.
Keelic gripped the railing with his suited hands. He thought of Leesol, Thom, his parents, Mr. Hallod. He could see each of their reactions, but before he could savor them it hit him that he could tell no one. Not if he was to keep it. If he wanted to explore this place, it would have to remain secret. Core loneliness mixed with a sense of unlimited victory. This was his.
He raised his arms high and exploded in a cry of pain and triumph.
"Admiral, I did not register that."
"I’m okay, never mind," replied Keelic.
He walked slowly around the chamber. Finding a military site from the Galactic War would have been exciting enough; but this—this standing on the bridge of Alpha Base— was overwhelming, yet it fit perfectly with every dream he’d ever imagined.
He sat in a chair. It shifted shape to accommodate him, and the station console lit up, though its screens were empty.
"Las-Ann, what’s this station for?"
"IntegralNet Power Management, sir."
Before descending into the central Command well, Keelic made a full circle of the room having each station named. There were more stations than in the vids, twenty in all. With slow steps, he descended into the central well.
The seats were plush, each nestled into half-moon consoles where tens of panels could be displayed. After a moment’s hesitation, Keelic sat in the largest, the Command seat, and caressed it, wiping off dust as its console glowed to life. The seat reshaped and curved inward on sides and arms until Keelic felt he was sitting in the palm of a giant hand. Most of the panels on the console, while active, stayed offline.
"Why are there so many of these panels off?"
"Available power is not sufficient to operate simulator s
ystems, Admiral."
Keelic smiled at the title, and asked, "Is the seat on my right Navigation?"
"Scan and Astrogation, sir."
"Nav, like I said. And on my left?"
"Resource Allocation, sir."
"The others?"
"IntegralNet Power Management, Communications, Dense-Matter Systems, Defense Coordination, sir."
"How do I work it?"
"There are over three hundred thousand training scenarios available, Admiral."
"Let’s play one."
"There is insufficient power, sir."
Keelic puffed an exasperated sigh. "Then simulate whatever you need. Can’t you do that?"
"Simulations will not meet required realism standards, Admiral."
"Why not?"
"Command systems rely on active feedback from associated systems throughout the simulator. Inertial simulation fields require primary base power, sir."
"Then don’t use it. I want to play one anyway."
"There is insufficient crew to operate the vessel, sir."
"Do it anyway, can’t you do things with reduced crew?"
"There is no available procedure for vessel operation with only two crew members, Admiral."
"There should be," said Keelic, getting frustrated. "Activate all systems that you can, simulate everything else, and invent a two-crew procedure."
"Compiling."
Nothing happened for a while. Keelic began to worry. Finally, a chime sounded and a ten-meter-long holo of the ship floated in the air before him, rotating slowly on its long axis. The ship was beautiful, long and sleek, symmetrical on its axis with four short wings that Keelic knew housed torpedo tubes and massive particle accelerators. The image was transparent to show all the vessel’s major systems. He held his breath as each panel on the console filled with status imagery, and color flowed through the ship diagram as virtual diagnostics ran for each system coming online. His own panel displayed an endless-looking menu of simulation options. The alien climbed into the seat with Keelic, expressing a wish to participate.
"My friend is going to sit in Scan Systems, Las-Ann. He’s going to help."
"The Resource Allocation console is better suited as a general function console, Admiral."
"’Kay."
"Is that an affirmative, Admiral?"
"Yes, it is. ’Kay means go ahead."
"Yes, sir. Routing primary damage control, resource allocation, power management, sensory systems, dense-matter systems, and engine management to Resource Allocation. Priority allocation, tactical navigation, and primary weapon control are at your console, Admiral. Secondary, tertiary, and quaternary subsystems will be displayed as required."
The alien settled into its chair with one eye on its console, the other looking at Keelic in anticipation.
"I want to do an easy one."
The ship image shrank and a starfield bloomed all around the ship.
On the main panel appeared:
Mission Orders
From: Terra Base
To: Revenge
Engage Quat-lat Kay-ku super-ship and destroy.
Destroying a super-ship is easy? thought Keelic.
His friend answered in mauve uncertainty swirls and orange-umber excitement.
A faint whirring came from above, and something attached itself firmly to Keelic’s head.
"What’s that? Get it off!"
It released him. Ducking, he looked up at some half helmet on an articulated arm.
Las-Ann answered, "The NSI is required for efficient participation and control in vessel operations, sir."
"What does that mean?"
"The Neural Ship Interface allows the crew to function as integral components of the vessel. Orders are transmitted immediately without the slow translations associated with spoken commands or manual panel manipulation. The interface reinforces visual sensory input from the holo display, providing an immersive field of view as well as command access to all vessel functions."
Keelic marveled. This aspect of the ship was never shown in the vids.
"Okay, let’s try it."
He felt the helmet interface clamp onto his head.
Nothing happened, then a hazy vision overlaid his normal sight.
The helmet unclamped from his head and Las-Ann said, "CI not detected."
"What?"
"Cranial Interface not detected, Admiral. It is required for the NSI to function."
Keelic pondered that for a second. "You mean I have to be augmented?"
"Yes, sir. Augmentation and training are required."
"But I saw the ship. I can make it work. Put it back on. Train me."
"Yes, sir." The helmet returned and clamped onto his head. "The interface maps thoughts to Command functions. While all functions are best handled by the vessel, the interface provides a link between officers and vessel to accomplish mission objectives. The linked officer develops a set of personal command sets. With practice, the officer’s thoughts become integrated vessel actions and goals. The CI boosts and organizes thought commands, relaying them cleanly to the vessel. The first exercise involves visualization."
"’Kay."
His vision blurred and shifted in triplicate, and he shut his eyes as he started getting dizzy. The image of the ship remained in his mind, however.
"Can you see the vessel icon, Admiral?"
"Yes."
"Try to rotate the vessel, Admiral. Visualize it turning."
Keelic tried, and his friend created another image of the ship, which rotated.
"No, don’t do that."
"Admiral?"
"I’m talking to my fr—assistant."
Help me move this ship, thought Keelic. The double image disappeared, and Keelic felt himself entering that realm where he and the alien played. He could feel his friend’s thoughts all around him, but couldn’t interpret much. Keelic tried to move the ship, and nothing happened.
"Excellent, Admiral," said Las-Ann.
Keelic opened his eyes and got the double vision back. I’m seeing double, he thought to the alien. The images parted completely and Keelic felt vertigo. He closed his eyes again, but the double vision stayed, with the image of his friend’s overlapping the one from the interface.
Can you see what I see? he sent to the alien.
A pause, then blue orange affirmation.
Then make it the same as what we make together, thought Keelic. I have to see only one image.
Strange shapes and colors, and emotions that he couldn’t quite feel, flowed around him. Finally, the ship image stabilized and he saw only what the interface was giving him. It blurred then shifted into crisp detail. Keelic slowly opened his eyes. The image stayed steady. Except for the console before him, the bridge was gone. He looked around and saw endless fields of stars. Before him floated a perfect rendition of a Lasiter Frigate.
"Next, Admiral, when I name a function, you are to imagine executing it, and your command pattern will be mapped to that function. Are you ready to begin?"
"Yes."
"Imagine the vessel rotating left."
He imagined the ship rotating, and the starfield moved, but not the ship.
"Las-Ann, the ship didn’t move, but everything else does."
"That is correct, sir. The system is vessel-centric. The icon is the reference point. With training your view may shift to become the vessel’s or look from any vantage where there is sufficient data."
"Oh."
"To continue, rotate the vessel to the right."
Keelic did and the starfield around him flowed. On impulse he imagined the ship moving forward. Nothing happened. This wasn’t going to be that easy. A planet appeared in the display, and Keelic leaned forward to look at the detail on its surface.
Las-Ann said, "Imagine the ship slowly moving forward, Admiral. This thought will be mapped to engage one-quarter nominal."
The planet began moving slowly past. Las-Ann worked Keelic through a long list of commands. After
the first few dozen, there were too many and he started forgetting. Many times he thought the wrong thing, and Las-Ann had to reset the vessel. Sensing Keelic’s frustration, the alien started helping beyond visualization, giving Keelic the ability to remember. They made fewer mistakes after that.
After an endless list of functions, most of which Keelic didn’t really understand, he said, "Listen, ship, I want you to show me how to do everything that is important. Shields, maneuvering, and weapons."
"Yes, sir."
As soon as he learned how to engage the translight drive, raise shields, and fire the beam weapons and torpedoes, he said, "Let’s play one. I’ll try to use the interface, but give me voice reports of important stuff, and if that info is on one of my panels, highlight it. Okay, go ahead."
The console panels scrolled data. Keelic looked up, but the holo showed blackness all around the ship, then a pinpoint of light sailed at an angle from the bow of the frigate. The holo lit up with a brilliant starfield. The pinpoint was left behind and the holo went dark again.
"What was that? Why is the display dark?"
"Sensor probes are fired every thirty seconds during translight travel. Data is relayed for one to twenty seconds depending on vessel velocity."
Before the Beacon Ways, he thought, remembering that this was three hundred years old. This was a real base from the war. A touch of worry cooled his excitement. What would his parents think?
A warning blinked.
"What’s happening?"
Las-Ann said, "Ictal system ETA thirty seconds."
A star approached rapidly, and a planet flashed past. A klaxon rang.
"What’s that?"
"Stellar Proximity Warning."
"Slow down! Stop!"
"Sir, neural input is a more efficient command method. Do you wish to review the command set or train with the Voice-Only Protocols?"
"No. Keep going."
The display changed scale to show a super-ship closing on Keelic’s stationary vessel. A soft warning sounded.
Keelic shouted, "Raise shields!" forgetting to imagine them going up.
He started the vessel moving again, but a flurry of beam and torpedo fire from the ship stopped him, and Las-Ann said, "You have been destroyed."
Keelic was panting mad.
"Let’s go again, but with a smaller ship this time."
Heart beating, hands sweaty, Keelic imagined shields surrounding the vessel, and a shimmer appeared around the ship image. Tactical nav and torpedo arming also were highlighted on the panel. He thought power to all weapons systems, and increased velocity.
The displays changed scale for optimal visualization as the ships approached each other. Purple beams struck his ship, and he fired forward torpedoes.
The torpedoes sailed as pinpoints of light nowhere near the enemy cruiser. They were old, unguided dense-matter torpedoes! He had forgotten about that. The enemy was changing course as it continued to fire.
Desperate, Keelic thought of firing all beam weapons as his friend showed him a monitor of shield power falling to nil.
Multiple beams fired after the vessel, but it was now out of range. Keelic turned to pursue, and the enemy ship fired aft torpedoes that struck Keelic’s ship on the nose. The display went dark.
"You have been destroyed."
Slamming the console with his fists, he shouted, "How do you hit something with torpedoes?"
"Firing potentials are continually calculated based on current ship attitude, velocity, and trajectory for each torpedo port. When any potential reaches optimum, the weapons con displays it. Normally, the vessel handles the weapons and fires on potential if tactical parameters indicate a positive outcome."
Keelic sighed. This wasn’t easy, but it wouldn’t be any fun if the ship did everything. "Show my friend how to do the shields without an interface. Show me again how to fire weapons with the interface."
Las-Ann showed him, then asked, "Admiral, would you like a general overview of vessel strategy?"
"That would be cold."
"Is that an affirmative, Admiral?"
"Yes. Tell me."
"The Lasiter Frigate is designed to function as an offensive platform. Its primary weapons systems are mounted forward to facilitate maximum target elimination before full enemy fleet investment. Because the Quat-lat Kay-ku utilize large numbers of super-vessels in all theaters, the Lasiter has been outfitted with the largest weapons system ever conceived. Mounted from engine core forward are the six primary matter-acceleration tubes."
Keelic’s suit communicator crackled.
"Quiet!" cried Keelic to the simulator.
Stabs of fear bit deep, and he sat immobilized for a few seconds.
Through static, his father’s voice asked, alarmed, "Where are you?"
"I’m in a cave. I’ll be out in a minute. Keelic out."
He and the alien ran. The water was only inches deep, and they splashed down the corridors of the simulator to skid to a halt at the pile of mud.
Gasping for breath, Keelic tossed off the pulse pistol, and removed the rank insignia from his suit. If Anny scanned him with those things, it would ruin everything. She might have already scanned him, but he didn’t think so. Some kind of stealth shielding in the bluff showed only natural caves, not what was really here. This was bad, though. He should have left a long time ago. Everything might be ruined.
He hooked up his twine feeder and started up. It seemed a long time, but they finally reached the ceiling, and Keelic realized he had no way to climb out. He grabbed the vines, but he was afraid to climb them.
"I can’t get out!"
The alien soothed him with orange, took the hanging twine, and went up the hole, then told Keelic to reverse his twine feeder. Marveling, Keelic went up the pierce-beam tube to the surface, where his friend strained to hold the line. Strong winds buffeted them, and he touched on his hood.
"Dad?"
"Where have you been? What are you doing on the top of the bluff?"
"We just went up to look around. There’s some sinkholes here." He hoped his father never wanted to see them. Of course, his parents would be pretty impressed. He was very tempted to tell them because he knew he was about to get into a whole star system of trouble.
"You should have been on your return over two hours ago. The winds are rising, you are outside the area I explored for you, and your mother is very upset. I am going to come out and get you. Stay where you are."
They moved away from the center of the crater and sat down to wait. The alien tried to get into his pack for food, but Keelic said no. Emitting brown hunger, and unhappiness, the alien moved some distance away to sit without looking at him.
Relenting, Keelic opened the food and the alien bounded back. They were only a few bites into the meal when the family shuttle swung down to land a few feet away.
Once inside, Father said, "Strap in. It is going to be a rough ride home."
The wind pushed them home, buffeting the craft, not dangerously, but enough to keep Father from asking any questions. Keelic was grateful for the wind.
After landing on the pad at home, his father turned to him. "Your mother is very upset. If you want to go out again, I suggest you behave very well."
The alien emulated Keelic’s cowed manner as Mother lectured him for two hours on the importance of not exploring beyond what Father had outlined for him. Though Keelic felt like trying, he did not attempt to defend himself, taking what he considered his father’s advice. In the more vociferous moments of the lecture, Keelic was tempted to tell all that he had found, but he kept silent. Mother fed him and the alien, and sent them off to bed. He crawled into bed exhausted. The secret was still his. Not even Anny knew. His very own base and simulator. He couldn’t imagine anything better. Yet it scared him as well. Never had he held such an epic secret. Winds sang around his tower as thoughts of his discovery lulled him into sleep.