The Dawn of Day - 13. Chapter 13 - The Dawn of Day

The Izanami ship was on full alert. All crew from the relevant compartments gathered in the cargo holds. The main computer had started the emergency procedure for a ship parked on the ground. The people flooded out of the ship and into the spaceport hall. Two containers, not yet secured in the cargo hold, were let down the ramp. They hovered down, landed on the ground and were taken away by the hovering way to the main door and out into the front hall. Nobody took notice of the crests. The crew talked excitedly until the commander spoke from the ship and said that it was a false alarm. The main computer had detected no self-induced overheating of the chemical engine. The sensor that gave off the warning was to be replaced and another test would be run before departure. Take-off was postponed for an hour. The commander asked the crew to get back on the ship. The Izanami squad had also left the ship. They didn’t know by now that the arrest rooms had unlocked during the emergency situation.

The repair ship in the adjoining hangar was ready for take-off. The roof of the hangar had already opened. Take-off was scheduled in five minutes. The cargo hatch unlocked and opened and the ramp descended. A container hovered up and into the ship. An Aryaka jumped onto the ramp, ran into the ship, secured the container in the cargo hold, and then left the ship quickly. The hatch closed, the door locked and the light on the console changed from red to white. The take-off sequence started.

The men on the bridge stared at the screen that monitored the cargo hold. The container was closed. Nahusha, Shesha and Vasuki were hiding inside. The first part of their plan had been successful.

The repair ship hovered up, left the hangar and rose into the air. It reached the upper layers of the atmosphere, climbed to orbit and pulled out of the gravity well. The ship set course for the platform orbiting the dwarf planet in the asteroid belt. The ship’s speed increased steadily. The humans watched the monitoring screens. The planet Kunjara fell behind the ship and soon looked like a marble in space.

The container in the cargo hold folded open and Nahusha, Shesha and Vasuki came out. They jerked their heads and moved their limbs choppily, but finally walked to the exit of the cargo hold. Nahusha pulled something out of a pocket and put it in his ear. The Aryaka proceeded to the bridge.

The unlocked doors to the arrest rooms were detected half an hour before departure of the Izanami ship. A hectic investigation followed. Take-off was canceled until further notice and the entire ship was searched by Izanami security teams. The recordings of the monitoring devices in the ship and the spaceport hall were sighted. The prisoners could be seen moving down a corridor with crew from the zero compartments. The individuals were identified and immediately questioned. A few crew members remembered they saw the open doors of the arrest rooms, others had seen the prisoners but had not paid much attention because of the alarm and the ongoing evacuation. A recording showed the prisoners in the cargo hold, but neither the ship’s nor the facility’s recordings showed the three Aryaka leaving the ship. Search in the cargo hold and on the ship was intensified, but the search came up empty.

The investigation then focused on the two containers. They had first been pushed to the side of the cargo hold to allow free access to the ramp during evacuation. The containers were not visible in the recording for a while. Then they were pushed onto the ramp. The investigation team concluded that the prisoners had climbed into a container while the crests were out of sight. A facility recording showed the containers hovering out of the hall with the ship and another recording showed the crests standing in the front hall. The crests had not been touched or moved until they hovered back onto the ship. The two containers were immediately opened. They were filled with supplies for the food processors. An Ektari individual working in repairs insisted he had seen a container hovering away to another door. The Aryaka officer on the investigation team was pleased with the Ektari’s professional eye and his mindfulness during an emergency situation. He asked the Ektari to carefully think over his observation as much depended on what he had seen. The officer asked if, just maybe, the Ektari had seen the container moving from the front hall back to the ship. The Ektari, anxious to provide help and professional advice, thought his observation over thoroughly and then admitted that he saw the container moving back to the ship. The Aryaka investigator thanked him.

Other witnesses were heard. A few had seen the prisoners in the spaceport hall, while others saw them on the ship crossing the lounge area at the same time. It was a useless endeavor. Ship and facility crew were unable to contribute anything useful. They had all panicked because of the emergency situation and a possible blow-up of the ship’s chemical reactor.

The investigation team was meanwhile certain that the prisoners had been freed. Their escape stank of a concerted action. It could, however, not been proved. The leader of the investigation team announced a more thorough investigation of ship and facility during the course of the day.

Someone pointed at possible outside helpers who had gained access to the facility and had freed the prisoners. It remained a mystery, however, as to how the helpers had entered the compound and left it with the prisoners. The investigation team looked into the recordings of the monitoring device near the facility entrance, beginning with the hour the prisoners had entered the compound. No unknown individuals could be sighted. Everybody entering the facility was registered in the database and had accessed the compound with a registered identity card. Nobody had left the facility during and after the emergency situation. Neither the prisoners nor any unknown individuals could be seen in the hangar and in the halls.

Nothing pointed to a tampering of recordings or registry logs. The three Aryaka in the monitoring room had done an excellent job. They had deleted the access logs of the humans and had perfectly edited all relevant recordings. The container with the prisoners had been replaced by an identical one in the front hall. The container with the prisoners had been pushed on the hovering way that moved the crest into the hangar where the repair ship was parked. The edited recordings showed nothing of it.

The Izanami ship finally departed, nine hours delayed. The Izanami squad was in an extremely bad mood. They had reported the arrest of three individuals and their transport to Izanami and now had to report the prisoners had been able to escape. They advised the facility crew to find the prisoners and hand them over to them when they were back on the planet in a couple of weeks. They would have liked to perform the search themselves, but the flight to Izanami was the last one of a cycle of flights between Kunjara and Izanami for the squad and the ship crew. An off-time period and vacation followed and neither squad nor crew had an interest in a prolonged stay on a planet in the outbound region of the galaxy, far away from any real civilization.

The Izanami ship hovered up into the air, climbed to orbit and set course for the Izanami hub near the galactic center. The ship’s speed increased and the sophisticated ship raced towards the edge of the system.

The repair ship had almost reached the dwarf planet where the ship was supposed to deviate from its course.

Nahusha, Shesha and Vasuki entered the bridge. The men unstrapped and turned to the Aryaka. The Aryaka each raised a hand in greeting. The men greeted back.

“Right in time,” Dave said.

“Glad to see you made it,” Brandon said with a smile.

Eric typed into the translation tablet. Nice to see you again. Are you informed of the plan?

Nahusha pressed his hand against his ear and focused on a transmission from Kunjara. Shesha took the tablet from Eric and typed a reply.

They gave us a portable communication device. We can’t communicate through the neural implants. They’re still deactivated. We’re into the plan and we have received the instructions. We’re approximately one hour from the deviation point. Thanks for your support. You can sure count on ours. Balancing scales, you know.

Nahusha jerked his head and spoke rapidly to Shesha and Vasuki. He waved at the men to rise from their seats. The men stood and the Aryaka sat down. They bowed over the controls and studied the messages that were scrolling down the screens. Finally, they leaned back in their seats. Nahusha was listening attentively to someone speaking on the line. Shesha typed an explanation into the tablet.

We were just informed that the Izanami ship took off a while ago and is gaining speed rapidly. The ship might reach the edge of the system before we have reached our drop-out point. We’ve just checked on the pre-programmed course. We may have to delay drop-out of real space to not attract unwanted attention. The repair ship will answer all possible queries from the Izanami ship with automated replies.

Eric informed Dave and Brandon.

The Izanami ship was fast. It was shortening the distance to the repair ship quickly. An officer on the bridge reported a flying object ahead and slightly within the flight corridor of the Izanami ship. The object was soon identified as a Kunjara repair ship on way to a dwarf planet in the asteroid belt. The automated ship didn’t follow the standard flight corridor for repair ships for some unknown reason.

“Query the ship”, the commander ordered.

“Automated reply,” the officer replied a short while later. “Unmanned repair ship on course for platform zz443. Automated flight and pre-programmed course. It’s not the standard course, however. It seems the ship swerved from its original course and the ship’s computer didn’t detect the deviation. Sensor malfunction possibly. Or computer failure.”

“Report to ground control. They must send a course correction. We can’t risk the repair ship swerving into our flight corridor,” the commander said.

“We’re shortening the distance to the repair ship rapidly,” the officer replied. “Time is getting short for a transmission cycle.”

“Slight gravitational pulse in direction of the ship. Shove the unmanned vessel out of our flight corridor,” the commander ordered.

“Sequence for a gravitational pulse, level 001, started,” the officer replied. “Pulse will hit the target in two minutes thirty-five seconds. Our ship will pass the target point in three minutes, two seconds.”

The slight gravitational pulse hit the repair ship and shoved it out of their flight corridor. The Izanami ship passed by and reached the drop-out point shortly after. The sophisticated ship dropped out of real space and continued its flight in warp mode. A powerful gravitational beam was taking the huge disk-shaped vessel to the center space hub Izanami.

The gravitational pulse, slight to the huge Izanami ship but powerful to the small vessel, blasted the repair ship off course. The repair ship was seized by the gravitational wave of the pulse and was dragged along with the undulating space-time fabric to a different location in time and space.

Neither the men nor the Aryaka had strapped in. The Aryaka were thrown against the console with great force and then to the floor when the ship started tumbling. The men were likewise thrown from their seats. Their bodies hit hard on the floor. The blow had come unexpected, in a moment of inattentiveness, when the Aryaka had not yet seized full control of the ship.

Brandon opened his eyes, turned his head and winced. His head was aching terribly. He was lying on the floor in front of the chairs. Dave was stretched next to him, motionless and with his eyes closed. Eric’s body had skidded across the floor. The three Aryaka were also sprawled on the floor. None of them stirred. Were they dead or unconscious? Brandon fought against feelings of despair and terror. He struggled to his feet, ignoring the pain all over his body, and checked on the others. They were unconscious. Dave’s face was injured and Eric had bit his lip. Nahusha’s forehead was lacerated, Vasuki’s hand was cut and Shesha’s right arm looked twisted. Brandon couldn’t tell about internal injuries. It was clear, however, that the Aryaka and the men needed support.

Brandon sat down in a chair and looked at the console. Something had thrown the ship off course. Something had hit the ship. An asteroid? Another ship? Or the shot of a weapon? The computer worked, luckily, and attempted to balance the flight of the ship. Brandon felt numb. He stared at the buttons, the lights and the screens on the console. He knew he had to get the ship to a safe place in space, but the task seemed impossible to him. They had trained for hours on the repair ship, had run the simulation program time and again, but now he wasn’t able to read the messages on the screens and he had forgotten the meaning of the controls and buttons.

“Focus,” he told himself, again and again. It didn’t work, however. Brandon’s despair grew with every second that passed.

Suddenly, he heard a whisper, very low and very far. Brandon startled and looked around in alarm. His heart was beating fast. He was hallucinating. It made his situation even worse. Brandon wiped his face nervously. Once again, he told himself to calm down and focus. Another surge of despair rushed through his body, but then he heard the whisper again, a subtle call seemingly coming out of nowhere.

“My name is Karma. Destiny.”

The tension left him and a quiet calm settled over Brandon. He relaxed and took a deep breath.

“My name is Brandon. Chieftain. I’m summoned to command this ship,” he said.

He had run simulations. He had learned to engage the gravitational drive and pick a pre-programmed flight destination from a menu. Brandon remembered the meanings of the controls and buttons and he identified the messages on the screens. He pressed the buttons in the proper order and opened the flight menu with the flight destinations. Varuna was on top of the list. The alternate destinations were programmed for an emergency case. The Aryaka plan had failed. Something had gone very wrong. Brandon scrolled down the list and picked the pre-programmed flight destination Kuru.

The computer stabilized the ship and determined the ship’s location in space. The system calculated the new course and confirmed the course change. Brandon pressed a button and commanded immediate drop-out of real space. A screen lit up. It showed the status updates sent from the warp drive. The gravitational engine came on and the ship continued its flight in warp mode. Brandon rose from his chair and attended to the wounded men and Aryaka.