"Asking the wrong person I am afraid, better to ask your brother Paul, have not been that closely involved in the data packs or their analysis." Richard shrugs his shoulders as he replies, then he asks, "Say you haven't anything to drink in this luxuriant pad have you?"
"Yes, help yourself, the drinks unit just over there." Ed points to a corner of the cabin, near the screen. Richard launches himself out of the chair. He does so with such force that he almost escapes the artificial gravity field and finds himself kind of hopping across the room. Ed warns, "Now steady, don't forget we are in space Unc. You're not on Regenis now."
Richard laughs as he steadies himself again and admits, "Yes I did forget then didn't I?" He soon finds himself by the drinks unit, he's about to serve himself, when he remembers Ed and asks if he'd like a drink.
Ed replies, "No thanks. Oh, whilst I remember, don't bother with the ice option, there's something up with the dispenser. I almost ended up with a black eye the last time I requested ice. It was a bit like your acrobatics a moment ago."
"Right, thanks for the warning. I probably would go for that option, especially as I was looking for something long and cool."
"What missing Sylvie?" Ed teases. Richard laughs and Ed suggests a Lacondite super cooler. But warns that its best to let it stand for a minute, unless you want to weld your tongue to the container.
"One of those is it, had something similar a couple of years back, didn't half hurt. Sylvie made things worse by laughing at me every time I mentioned the incident."
"Sympathy, you just can't get any these days eh?" Ed pleased to be able to carry out such banter and forget his woes, was enjoying the moment.
Richard's comms device beeps, closely followed by Ed's. They look at their devices and then at each other. Richard says, "Looks like the drink has to wait, same call?"
Ed smiles and asks, "How on Regenis 4 am I going to know how to answer that one, don't know what your message said?"
Richard smiles back, "Good point, been summoned to the entertainments room, how about you?"
"Same. Wonder what's up?" asks Ed.
"Well we won't find out hanging around here will we?" He heads towards the cabin door.
~~~~~~~~
Chapter 23 - Battle Stations
The screen seems to indicate that the Jasteritan had come to a complete stand still. Whilst difficult to tell at a glance, a professional like Ed, was trained to observe the slight changes in star patterns on the edges of screen, although subtle, they indicated whether the craft was in motion or not. The Jasteritan was clearly not in motion. There were no changes happening. Ed wonders if something has gone wrong with the craft's drives, or whether something else was going on. The room, whilst quite large, is quite packed now. Unfortunately there wasn't any bigger space for everyone to meet up in. This room was never intended to hold all of the passengers of this craft, in fact there were several other rooms dotted around the craft serving the same purpose. However on this journey, this was the only one in use. Ed was glad that the craft only had less than a quarter of its normal quantity of passengers. Otherwise it would soon get too crowded and uncomfortable in here.
Now, Ed can see the Captain and one of Richard's senior people standing in front of the screen. Ed wonders who is taking care of the craft's navigation, then he remembers it is at stand still, so no need for anyone to be on the flight deck. This is confirmed as he catches sight of Jiash to the left of the screen. She has her head bowed, as if avoiding eye contact with anyone, let alone Ed.
Surely this won't be some sort of announcement connected with himself, Jiash and the review panel. No-one could be that heartless surely? It has to be something connected with the mission. The fact that the craft is stationary bugs Ed, he just cannot figure out why, surely they had another couple of hours to go according to Richard. Maybe something has happened to the other craft and the mission is going to be scrubbed. Ed can't wait for the announcement to begin He looks round at Richard, he seems as cool as a cucumber. Strange phrase that, no one has seen one of those strange green plants for some considerable years, yet it is still a well used phrase.
There is a lot of mumbling going on, as everyone else in the room is proposing ideas as to what the meeting is all about. The Captain and this other official seem to be waiting for something or someone.
Ed suddenly sees Richard being whisked away by another of Richard's people. Ed wonders if Richard is now in trouble, perhaps for going to see himself and spending time in Ed's cabin. Richard and the other man squeeze their way through the crowd, heading towards the screen. Soon Richard is standing beside the senior officer. He leans into Richard's left ear and appears to be updating him on something. Ed is somewhat relieved, it appears as if his Uncle is not in trouble, but a part of whatever is going on.
The senior person clears his throat and announces, "Ladies, Gentlemen and Space rats." There is a laugh at the latter. The space rats, whilst not really complimentary, was usually used as a term of endearment and affection. It referred to people like Ed who ferried people around the stars. The man went on to say, "We have reached our mission point somewhat earlier than anticipated, so you may have noticed that we have come to a stand still as we await our sister craft the, the...." he looks to Richard for some assistance.
Richard obliges with, "The Questor 9, a battle cruiser, also heading for this sector in space."
"Thank you Richard," the man smiles and resumes, "Apparently we got caught up in some sort of solar stream which rushed us along somewhat faster than anyone anticipated. Despite best efforts of our Captain Fedioaux here and her fellow flight crew, they were unable to slow down our progress. Anyway, we have about one and half hours before the, the Questor 9 arrives. I just thought that it would give me the opportunity to thank you all for volunteering for this mission and assure you that between ourselves and the Questor 9 we will do our utmost to find out what in space is going on with this anom thing and if it is at all possible we will rescue our colleagues the other side of this thing. You will all need t be as alert as possible in the coming hours. Those that have not had any sleep for some time, should get some shut eye now, as we will need to maintain round the clock vigilance. Don't think that you will be missing out on the fun, as fun I am sure it will not be. It is more important that we have a fully effective and efficient intelligence operation on this craft. When it comes to brawn, the Questor 9 will provide that, we need to provide the brains. Can I wish you all good luck and remember above all, that whilst things may get tough, we are all part of the one team and our aim is to win out over this, this thing."
There's a cheer and the mumbling starts again, only this time somewhat louder. Richard makes his way back towards Ed, as does the Captain. Ed looks out of the corner of his eye and Jiash appears to have vanished.
'Well at last some action. This is what we came out here for and it isn't going to be long before we face the invisible foe.' thinks Ed to himself. He wonders if the theory about crossing craft really does open up the anomaly, or if that was all wrong. If there really is a foe, what are they like? What weapons do they have, what is behind all this capture of the craft, are they building up some sort of battle fleet that they are going to send back to conquer the peoples of this part of space. Questions, questions and soon he may have some answers.
Fedioaux reaches Ed first, she asks if he is alright, apologises for the short notice.
Ed assures Fedioaux that he is fine and that he wasn't doing anything much, so the short notice was perfectly alright.
Fedioaux asks if Ed would like to go on duty or stay on rest.
Ed says that he would rather be busy and that he had a good rest session so was raring to go. He asked if Jiash had any preferences regards the matter.
Fedioaux's smile, catches Ed unawares, she says that Jiash needed some sleep and that in a way it was a shame that she had to wake her to witness the announcement, but it had to be done.
<
br /> That is one puzzle solved, that explains the fact that her head was down whilst the announcement was being made, she was still tired, it also explained why she had disappeared so quickly after the announcement.
Ed decides that he will ask straight out whether Fedioaux has heard anything about the review panel.
Fedioaux replies, "They either haven't invited me back or they haven't re-sat, as I have heard nothing as yet. I was hoping that you would have heard something, but obviously not?"
Ed confirms that he has not. He also adds that Richard has heard nothing either, but had promised to find out what was happening. Ed looks up and finds that Richard has been detained by someone, they are in deep conversation about something, quite what it was impossible to tell.
Fedioaux says, "OK, when did you last have something to eat?"
Ed lies, saying that it had been an hour ago, whereas it had been several hours ago. He is keen to get back on duty, some action will take his mind off of all the other goings on round here.
Fedioaux suggests that he reports for duty in half an hour, by which time things will get more interesting as they will be aligning the craft ready for the cross over and the the Questor 9 will be here. Fedioaux departs.
Ed glances over to Richard, he is still heavily involved in his conversation. Ed decides that it would be rude to go to Richard and disturb the conversation. Instead Ed heads for the cafeteria, to grab a quick drink and snack. As Ed looks for a vacant seat, it seems strange for the cafeteria to be so busy, presumably these others had the same idea as Ed to recharged the batteries so to speak, before 'battle commences', after all they may not get the chance latter.
Suddenly Ed catches sight of Jiash. Sat at a table on her own. He hopes she doesn't see him, he is about to turn and head in the opposite direction, when she looks up and catches sight of him. She indicates that he should join her. Ed knows this is forbidden so continues to swing around and heads off to the more crowded end of the cafeteria, regretting the fact that Jiash had to pick the least populated end of the room. Ed feels a bit like a fish trying to swim against the tide, the mass of people laden with their drinks and food, heading in the direction that he has just come from. This all slows him down and interferes with his search for a vacant chair in this segment of the room. Someone gets up and leaves a table ahead of him, Ed tries to head at speed towards the vacant spot, but someone ahead of him beats him to it.
This all reminds Ed of a busy space port, its just as noisy too.
Another vacant spot just ahead of him, Ed determined to make it this time starts to head straight for it, but is stopped by a hand on his shoulder, closely followed by the soft voice of Jiash, "Ed do not go Click! I want Click! To say Click! That I am Click!..."
Ed doesn't give her the chance to finish her statement, instead he says, "Look Jiash, we are not supposed to be in the same room, let alone talking. Please let go of me."
The grip on his shoulder,still as firm as ever, no sign of it changing. Jiash resumes, "But Ed Click! I must say Click!...."
"Please Jiash, you must know as much as I do that we cannot do this, I must go." Ed lurches forward, obviously taking Jiash by surprise, her grip is released. Unfortunately Jiash is not the only one surprised by Ed's sudden movement, there is a woman holding a tray in front of him, his sudden movement has caused her to lose her balance, she falls forward and almost spills the content of her tray. A man beside her, wheels round to face Ed, his face quite red with anger. He says, "Look matey don't know what your game is, but there's no reason for such behaviour. If you want to have an argument, take it outside where it will be safer. Or I will be forced to make you take it elsewhere."
Ed says, "I am so sorry I didn't mean to...."
"Just take it elsewhere matey!" the other man protests, as he helps the woman regain her balance.
Ed follows the man's advice and quickly heads out of the cafeteria. He puts his tray down before he leaves. He gets a strange look from the person behind the counter, but they quickly resume serving the demanding queue.
It doesn't take Ed long to realise that he is being followed, he glances over his shoulder, whilst still trying to maintain his fast pace out of the cafeteria area, whilst also trying to avoid the stream of people heading towards the cafeteria. Ed catches sight of Jiash, in hot pursuit.
Ed wonders what on Regenis 4 she is playing at, surely she received the same briefing that Ed had received, regards the fact that it was forbidden for them to be in the same area and they certainly should be interacting in any way.
Ed picks up speed and nearly runs into someone as a consequence. He darts down a side corridor, whilst at the same time, tries to remember where this will lead. He doesn't have long before he sees that it branches into two directions, he takes the right branch. Luckily this corridor is almost deserted. Another decision point, this time a cross roads, Ed heads of left, the corridor bends round to the right, then a bit further to the left, he sees why, there's a lift door, the corridor continues on down for a bit then swings right. At the end of this segment is a ladder. Ed climbs this and finds himself on the next deck up. There are corridors heading off left straight on and right. Ed opts for the left corridor. After a while there is choice of a branch off to the right or straight on. Ed opts to branch to the right. This leads out to a larger corridor which Ed recognises as being one that leads to the flight deck.
The flight deck and sanctuary. Thinks Ed. Jiash would be unable to get him into any trouble there as the Captain won't stand for it. He enters the flight deck and Fedioaux looks across at him, rather surprised at his entrance. "You are keen." she remarks.
"Actually not!" replies Ed, I ran into Jiash in the cafeteria and I'm trying to get away from her." Ed then explains the encounter. The Captain listens patiently, whilst also scowling. Ed wonders if the scowl is meant for him or Jiash. The latter is confirmed as Fedioaux says, "Silly girl, wonder what she was up to? Although it sounds from what you have said, like she was trying to apologise for something. Shame we don't know quite what for."
"Well I wasn't going to be in breech of the conditions placed on me to find out quite what that was." Ed protests.
"Quite quite." Fedioaux agrees. Then she says, "Oh well hopefully it will all come out in the open soon enough."
Ed feeling somewhat guilty at the fact that he had even gone to the cafeteria on that deck when it was quite possible that Jiash could have been there, asks, "What will happen to her?"
"Sorry what do you mean?" asks Fedioaux.
"Well for her breech of the conditions?" explains Ed.
"Oh I see. Well it won't go in her favour as she was clearly told to stay away from you and you obviously did your utmost to live up to your side of things." Fedioaux goes silent for a moment, then says, "If only we could resolve this before we go for the cross over."
~~~~~~~~
Chapter 24 - The Pull
She certainly is an impressive craft, they had seen her sideways on as she re-aligned herself, before making the final approach. Now it was like two giant knights of space, fully enrobed in their battle dress, awaiting the signal to make the charge towards each other. Each making tiny alignment adjustments, floating there in space, admiring each other from afar, eyeing each other up as if judging the strength of the opponent before battle commences. Although in reality, they were friends not foe, both coming from opposite sides of space, yet both on the same side, a single goal to trick this thing into trying to swallow up one or other of the craft so that they could both find a weakness behind this sly and cunning enemy and exploit it to its full. It has taken several days for both of these craft to reach this moment in time, to stand together, awaiting the duly appointed moment, when the signal will be sent for the operation to properly commence. The tension inside both craft mounting almost to fever pitch. Each man and woman at their stations, awaiting their moment to shine, to be victorious and find the chink in the their common foe's armour
. If there were a single sun close enough to these two craft, you could imagine its light glinting off of these two proud craft as they await their moment of glory.
If there were an audience watching, would they be cheering for their favourite or would they be silent, awaiting the signal for.....
Both craft start to gracefully move towards each other, as if they were still continuing to cross the vastness of space, and head off in their separate directions having crossed close by each other. Close enough for the people aboard the craft to wave to each other, but not so close that one craft can touch the other, or even feel the output from each other's powerful engines.
The speed builds up, the craft approach. The tension builds.
All this way they have travelled and yet it seems so simple, one craft passes the other.
The Questor 9, now looking so dark, so ominous, heading straight for them. Yet Ed knows that its course is set to pass by. Yet the craft is so large that it looks like it will crash straight into them. Ed thinks that he has to trust the instrumentation and not what he sees with his eyes out of the window. The time ticks by, the giant monsters lunge towards each other. Ed keeps a keen eye out for any anomaly activity, as well as tracking the advancing craft. It looks so strange, more like some sort of docking station with odd shaped craft stuck to its sides, like the mythical creature, the hedgehog with lots of things stuck to its spines, unable to budge them. They look so precarious, as if when the Questor 9 passes by one of those things could fall upon the Jasteritan, smashing into it. A strange notion as out here, gravity is rather selective. The bit of craft could equally fly well away from both craft, its interest lying in some distant location.