Memoirs of Kitty Siam Ch. 33

Memoirs of Kitty Siam - Udon.

It did not take me long to miss the water showers that I took on Rontara after my first experience with the sonic showers on board our ship. The sonic showers did a fantastic job of cleaning the body in quick order, but the were no substitute for real hot water caressing my skin.

When I finished my shower, Sima was in our quarters in a video conference with General Tives Hathok, who I found out was Sima's husband after doing some very skillful eavesdropping. From the tone of their conversation they seemed quite happy and truly missed each other. The General was concerned about the sudden nature of our trip and was not totally convinced that his beloved should have volunteered for a field assignment with me as she lacked the experience and training for anything more than a routine survey mission. She did her best to assure him that our journey was just a quick hop to investigate the origin of my DNA and that no combat or covert actions would be required. I chimed in as I slipped into a white cropped t-shirt and matching panties that the Major was in good hands and would be safe.

The General cleared his throat as a sign of his displeasure that I was listening in and that I had the audacity to interrupt their private conversation. I giggled to myself as I realized that the General was upset, but I was used to dorm life having lived in one most of my life and had to deal with roommates and their privacy or lack thereof with me around. Actually there was no privacy, but we tried to be respectful of each other, and I guess it was a little disrespectful when I walked behind Sima in my underwear and waved at the General as I passed by. Silence filled the room as I slipped into a tiny pair of white shorts and headed toward the flight deck to have a little chat with Sheba.

On my way to the flight deck I made a stop for a tall glass of ice tea. With tea and tablet in hand I contacted Sheba by our private link and asked he for a status update on the ship. Her reply was that we were on course and all systems were functioning within expected perimeters.

As I slipped into the pilot's seat the panel in front of me came to life and presented me with a display of all of the ship's critical functions. While the panel was clean and bright and the displays readable, they had a very old look to them so I asked Sheba to display her production date and major overhaul and maintenance records. I knew that this ship was old and I had figured that it was about six thousand years old but I was speechless when I learned that this vessel was 13,181 years old. What made it even more incredible was that the date was listed in galactic standard years, and by my quick calculations, in Earth years Sheba was 17,522 years old. Before we left Galora I had guessed that Sheba was around six thousand years old, but I had made that assumption on the age of the base on Rontara's historical records. I obviously was way off given the construction date and maintenance records that I was now looking at.

It appeared that Sheba had been in service to many bases scattered around the galaxy and had sustained heavy damage on several occasions. As I looked more closely I noticed that the damage had occurred in different sectors, and it appeared that there was a span of around five thousand galactic years between each series of major repairs.

I went back to the oldest record of severe damage and pulled up the actual report but what I got was either heavily redacted or bits and pieces of it were lost over time. To make matters worse, it was written in an ancient version of the Annu language that was not translated very well to the modern incarnation of the language. It appears that the ship was damaged by a vessel of unknown origin.

I contacted Sheba by our private neural link and asked her about this incident, but unfortunately she could not provide much information on it as the systems in use then were not compatible with her current software.

Sheba then went into a dissertation that let me know that she was not a living organism as I had originally thought, and that she was only an artificial intelligence (AI) application built into the ship's central core. I was in awe of Sheba once I came to the realization that an AI could communicate with me by brain waves alone.

This revelation prompted me to ask about the reaction of the ship's exterior to my touch before we launched.

Sheba explained that what I felt was the exterior skin of the vessel that is quite alive. The skin is a living, self-healing organism designed to deflect space debris and projectile type weapons, and absorb the radiated energy of beam weapons.

I immediately searched for the specs on this skin design but there was nothing available to me. What I was able to find is that it was a type of ablative armor of recent design and was highly classified. I did learn that this would be the first mission for this vessel with the new skin refit.

I went back to the maintenance logs and took a look at the next to the oldest maintenance record that showed heavy damage to Sheba and found that there was more than one incident of damage to this craft. There was a gap of about five thousand years since the previous major repair. It appeared from the maintenance records that this vessel was heavily damaged several times over a twenty-year period. My first guess as I looked over the records is that perhaps Sheba had run into raiders or privateers, but the damage pattern was an indication of heavy weapons, much heavier than raiders would use. The blast patterns indicated that the attackers had attempted to destroy this vessel instead of boarding it for the purpose of stealing her cargo.

The following records over the next twenty years period showed similar damage, and the weapons resonance signatures on the hull indicated that all the attacks over this period were done by multiple versions of the same ship, which led me to believe that Sheba was involved in several major conflicts over her lifetime of service.

I skimmed forward to the next set of records and pulled up those that indicated heavy damage. As I read carefully through each report it was becoming clear that over a ten thousand year period Sheba had been damaged by the same type of weapon on numerous occasions, and that the damage had occurred in almost exactly five thousand year increments.

I continued my scan of the maintenance records and did some basic math and came to the conclusion that we were within about a hundred years or so of the end of the current five thousand year period. It did not take long for me to come to the conclusion that every five thousand years or so, a major conflict had taken place and if this maintenance history was correct, perhaps within the next century we could expect to see another similar conflict break out in this quadrant of the galaxy.

Next I directed Sheba's attention to the maintenance records that I had just reviewed. I pointed out the pattern of damage and asked what sort of weapon has a resonance signature similar to the signature of the damage indicated in the maintenance reports.

The answer that I got back from Sheba was that a phased pulse disruptor caused the damage.

Sheba, List all space faring species that use such weapons.

Zeta Reticulans.

Sheba, locate home world of species Zeta Reticulans.

Requested location unavailable.

Sheba, explain.

Data location containing the requested information is unavailable. Contact Ksatria Cahaya Actual to report this discrepancy.

Sheba, is this information restricted above my level of clearance?

Requested data record has been removed. Requested storage area has been damaged.

Sheba, how were the records damaged?

Information unavailable.

Thank you Sheba.

I disengaged my link to Sheba as I needed some time to ponder what I had just learned. I decided to take a walking tour of the ship, but first a change of attire was in order. I activated my newly upgraded wardrobe device and donned my old white Drax Corporation flight suit, but the garment that I found myself dressed in was nothing like the one that I had stored in my old collar a few years ago. Gone was the old bulky flame resistant blend of high tech fabrics that I knew so well.

The color was still the same but the new version of the flight suit was some sort of clinging fabric that looked on the outside like white latex, but felt like silk against my skin. A closer inspection of the fabric revealed that it was no thicker than a human hair yet the specifications on the new suit indicated that it was three times more durable than my black battle suit, and also provided superior protection against directed beam weapons and radiation. Another benefit to the suit that was listed in its specifications was that it could double as a space suit once the helmet, gloves and breathing system were deployed from the wardrobe device.

This new suit made me thankful that the good folks at Osaka Eugenics had designed me to be free of pubic hair, because as thin and as tight fitting as this suit was, had I had hair down there you could easily count the number hairs from their outline on the outside of the suit. When I had a chance to look at the new suit in a mirror I was struck by how my nipples were so prominently on display through the fabric. Again, the thinness of the fabric made even my small nipples easy to see, and if one looked close enough it was easy to tell where the demarcation line was between my breast flesh and my areolas was located. I came to the conclusion that getting aroused in this suit would not be a good idea.

This thought caused me to go through the items stored in my wardrobe device and construct a short waist length jacket made of similar materiel that I could wear on top of the flight suit to keep my little nubs from broadcasting to the galaxy something that I would prefer to remain a secret. Once the jacket was ready I deployed it and had a good look at the outfit and was pleased with what I had constructed and of course how I looked in the form-fitting garment.

There was no need for shoes or boots with this selection as a thick layer of the suit's fabric protected the bottoms of the feet. The bottoms were also treated with a slip resistant surface. The nice thing about the foot protection was that it was flexible enough to allow the wearer to climb about on rugged surfaces with ease, yet comfortable enough to wear for days if necessary aboard ship.

I set out on my walkabout and in a short time I passed by the small galley and found Sima enjoying a snack. In space there is no day and night time and the same goes for hyperspace, that is unless you have the ship set up for day and night and Sima had taken care of that after we boarded. She synchronized the ship's day and night cycle to match that of our Central Command facility, which was the time that her body clock was set to. It really did not make a difference to me as I never really required much sleep. It was now mid day per the chronometer in the galley. As I entered Sima gave me a good looking over as I moved about the room in my flight suit. Her look was neither of approval or disapproval, but for whatever reason she was taking a good long look as I had caught her several times checking me out. I did not think she was looking at me in a sexual way; it was more like she was looking me over for uniform code violations. After all she was a officer and I guess old habits are always hanging about.

I fixed myself some iced tea in a travel mug as I planned on taking it with me on my walkabout. Sima was having some sort of burned replicated bird meat and asked me if I would join her for lunch. It had been a while since I had eaten, so I took a seat and joined her. The food was sort of bland, but it was filling. We sat, ate, and chatted for a bit, but nothing was said of any importance. I remarked that the ship was functioning well and that I had gone over some of the maintenance records. I was surprised that when I told Sima how old this ship was, she just nodded and kept on eating. I suppose from her reaction that traveling in such old vessels was the norm for her and her people.

We finished our meal and as we parted ways I asked Sima if she wanted to accompany me on my tour of the ship, but she declined and cited that she was behind on her reports to Central Command and needed some time to herself to get caught up. Sima remained in the galley while I made my way about the ship. It did not take me long to familiarize myself with the ship's internal workings as the schematics were part of the permanent record that was downloaded into my brain for easy access. My tour lasted the better part of the day and when I was convinced that I had inspected the most critical systems on board, I made my way back to the flight deck to have a look at the ship's instrumentation. As expected, all ships functions were operating within the expected limits.

I sat watching the flight console for quiet a while and as I watched the numbers fluctuate my thoughts went back to the conversation that I had with Sheba earlier about the damage that she had sustained. I formulated a new round of questions to pose to her but thought that I had better do more research on my own before I got Sheba involved. I began to think that it might be time to discuss what I had learned with Sima since I had her here as a captive audience.

I slipped out of my seat and left the flight deck, then asked Sheba where the Major was located.

Major Sima Kashen is located in the sleeping alcove of the habitation module was the answer I received.

I made my way to the habitation module and when I got there I found the Major in her bunk in a deep sleep. She had turned on the stasis beam and put up a, "Do not disturb for three weeks" sign. Of course it would have been nice for her to say, "Kitty, I am going to sleep for the rest of the trip", but hey, I'm just the hired help here. Oh wait; I have not been formally hired yet. I stood there looking over her sleeping form and for a few seconds I thought I heard her snoring... not really; the snoring sound was just the air handlers kicking in.

I figured that two can play this game so I gave the ship's functional readouts one last going over before I slipped into my bunk on the bulkhead across the compartment from Sima. Like Sima I positioned myself on my back and crossed my hands over my chest then gave instructions to Sheba to monitor ship functions and to wake me as soon as a problem is detected. I left a wakeup call for twelve hours prior to our scheduled time to leave hyperspace, and then activated the twilight stasis field and in seconds I had joined Sima in slumber land.

My sleep was uninterrupted; I did not dream and there were no shipboard emergencies that I needed to deal with along the way. When Sheba turned off the stasis field I woke refreshed and ready for a long hot shower. Unfortunately all that was available was a not so nice sonic shower, which was just enough to get the three weeks of sleeping funk off of my body. I did not want to smell really bad when we touched down on Udon.

I dressed as before in my newly upgraded white flight suit, but this time I made sure to include the Drax Corporation logo over my left breast. I thought that wearing the corporate tag would perhaps lend some corporate legitimacy to my visit so that maybe the good folks at Osaka Eugenics would be more cooperative in providing my un redacted medical records.

After I finished my shower and dressed I made a quick survey of the ship and got a full report on the ship's critical functions from Sheba. When I returned to the habitation module, Sima had already vacated her bunk and was in the galley having her version of coffee and breakfast. We exchanged greetings and I gave her a quick run down on the ship's condition and made mention that we would need to replenish the HE3 tanks before we left the system.

Sima barely responded as she had her nose almost pressed against her data tablet in an attempt to catch up on a three-week backlog of what passed for paperwork. We ate our breakfast in silence while she tended to her duties and I tended to mine. I dug a little deeper into Sheba's flight and maintenance records while I ate, but discovered nothing new. We were a few hours from jumping back into normal space when I finished my meal. I placed my dishes in the recycle bin, refilled my coffee mug then made my way to the flight deck.

I made myself at home as I slipped comfortably into the pilot's seat. I brought the command console to life and deployed the manual control joystick. I always preferred manual control during landings in an oxygen atmosphere.

I contacted Sima and advised her that we would be exiting hyperspace shortly and that she should prepare herself. I went through the checklists for our return to normal space, and while I was at it, I went through our pre-landing checklist. That took up the last two hours of our hyperspace travel. When Sima made her way onto the flight deck I was just securing myself into my seat with the shoulder and lap belts as sometimes the transition from hyperspace to normal space can get a little bumpy, as can landings in an oxygen atmosphere. Yes, even after several thousand years, there has been no sure fire remedy for atmospheric turbulence.

Sima strapped herself in also as I instructed Sheba to being the process of returning to normal space. I could have done it myself but it was a boring process that is best left to the ship's AI. The ship sent out a bright blue pulse toward the unending blackness of space and within seconds a swirling blue whirlpool began to form in front of us. The hyper drive powered down as we slipped through the event horizon and entered normal space without incident.

I checked our position and discovered that we had jumped in close enough to Udon that the rest of our journey would take us a little under and hour to make planetary orbit. We were just close enough to have set off the sensors of the planetary defense grid. Being that we were not expected on Udon, as we did not file a proper flight plan I activated the comm system and tuned in the Udon Traffic Control frequency.

Galora Explorer One to Udon Traffic Control.

I waited for a few minutes but there was no response so I tried again.

Galora Explorer One to Udon Traffic Control, do you read?

A few minutes later I began switching through the various control channels that were normally used by Udon Control and each time my hails were met with silence. My next attempt was to contact the local defense force for a response, as I was sure that by now they were targeting us.

Galora Explorer One to Udon Defense Command

Again, silence.

I looked over at Sima and she looked back at me and I could see the concern in her eyes, as I am sure that she had seen the same in mine. I made a quick tactical scan of the system but could not identify any space traffic in or around the planet Udon. Next I instructed Sheba to begin a scan of all available sub space frequencies for any voice or data traffic. At the same time I raised our defensive shields, deployed the heavy ablative armor and engaged the cloaking system.

As Sheba reported that no communications of any kind had been detected I began an evasive course toward Udon just in case anyone was trying to plot an intercept course from our previous heading.

We were now within the range of Udon's powerful pulse ion cannons, and yet I could detect no targeting sensors being directed at us. As Udon grew larger on the main view screen Sheba's sensors began to pick up debris orbiting the planet. A quick tactical scan now reviled that the debris was the remnants of Udon's two orbiting spaceports that I had visited often during my flight training as a cadet.