Memoirs of Kitty Siam Ch. 34

I set course for the fourth planet in the SolTer system as it was known on Annu galactic map and pulled the ship away from Udon's star. Once we were a safe distance from the star I opened a jump point and we entered hyperspace. It was a much shorter journey to our destination than the journey from Galora to Udon. The trip took us a few hours under three days and the trip was uneventful. During the trip Sima and I continued our discussions about the KC and the PTB and after giving the matter a lot of thought I agreed to join.

Sima offered me a commission as a lieutenant in the militarized side of the KC, but instead I decided to decline and join the PTB and elected exploration and science over war as I had had enough war and violence during my days with the Kreetin army. The Major did her best to convince me that my talents would be wasted as a scientist, but she reluctantly agreed with my choice and supported me when she relayed my decision to Central Command.

On the last day of our journey I was formally inducted into the PTB and given the pay grade and seniority commensurate with a Lieutenant on the military side of the organization. I was told that once we returned to Central Command that I would be afforded the opportunity to choose my own maintenance and exploration crew. I would also be allowed to choose the home station for myself and my crew, and from what Sima told me, the location choices would consist of recently repaired portal hubs on the fringe of the galaxy. I guess that would be a good place to put me since our primary mission was exploration and the restoration of the portal system. As I thought this over there was always the hope in the back of my mind that we could activate one of the portals on Earth and my home base could be there.

It is not standard practice for a pilot to engage the ship's shields upon coming out of hyperspace but for me it was a safety precaution that I had subscribed to since I first started flight training at the academy. It was a good thing for us that I chose the side of caution because as we entered normal space near Mars a large hunk of debris bounced off our forward shield. Had the shields not been raised, the flight deck would have been gone.

Upon the realization that we had emerged from hyperspace into a debris field not listed on any of the navigation charts, not even the ones I remembered from the academy. As another chunk of debris impacted against the forward shields I diverted power from the science and habitation modules and applied the extra power to the forward shields. I activated the ship's defense grid and turned targeting over to Sheba, which would allow me to concentrate on not slamming into a hunk of metal that was larger than our shields, or defense grid could neutralize.

It soon became clear that the space junk we were flying through at one time was what was left of the Mars defense fleet. I scanned the debris visually and Sima began using the ships sensors to determine where we were and what had happened. It did not take too long to understand that a pretty lengthy and intense battle had taken place around Mars and within the orbit of the moon Phobos.

Sima continued to update me on the results of her scans and even without the equipment from the science section she had a pretty good picture of what had happened. Two fleets had engaged in combat in the area and it appeared that the Mars defense fleet had lost the battle. The Major was unable to identify the attacking fleet as there was no wreckage found from any vessels other than that of the Earth Force fleet that was assigned to the defense of Mars.

I brought the ship to a stand still and parked us next to a huge chunk of hull that had once belonged to the Earth Force cruiser Nagato. I deployed the landing struts, turned the ship and connected magnetically to the hull section. Once the ship was attached, I switched our shield coverage to favor the top of the ship then engaged the cloaking system. I informed the Major that I would prefer to learn more about what had happened here before we go any farther with our mission. Sima agreed, then made the suggestion that we switch to passive scanning so as not to give our position away should there still be a hostile force in the area. Of course it was my turn to agree with her.

Our first duty by galactic convention was to scan for survivors and render assistance as necessary. From looking at the wreckage and seeing no atmosphere, flame, smoke, or fuel venting from the debris, it was clear that the battle had been over long ago. However, we still conducted our scans as required.

As we finished our scans for survivors, I asked Sima if she could identify a common weapons signature in the debris field, but there was nothing that she could immediately determine. She set about narrowing her scanning beams, but before she did she gave me this confused look as to why I was suddenly taking charge of this mission and giving her orders. My intention was not to step on her toes or anything but my mind was working on a hundred different things and perhaps I was speaking out of turn but I really needed to know what had happened. I explained this to her and she understood, though I did not announce to her that I would have Sheba monitoring her scans just for my own peace of mind.

I contacted Sheba by our private link and asked her to also scan the wreckage and to monitor the scans that Sima was conducting. It did not take long for Sheba to announce that a weapons signature had been found.

Sheba, identify weapons signature.

Resonance traces indicate that a phased pulse disruptor .

Sheba, identify species or ship type that matches this resonance signature

Origin of weapon signature... unknown.

Sheba, cross-reference resonance traces on Earth ship hulls with those from the maintenance records from this vessel.

Resonance trace matches 95%. High probability same species and ship types involved in multiple incidents.

Thank you Sheba.

With this knowledge fresh in my mind I turned to Sima and asked if she had found anything that indicated who the attacker was. Her response was a disappointing, "No."

Either the Major knew what I knew and she was holding it back, or she did not know. After all, I had accessed Sheba's maintenance records and cataloged the damage, where she had not. I decided that I would keep this information strictly between Sheba and myself. I needed to determine if the Sima was holding back on me or if she really did not know. I was hoping that it was the latter as I really wanted to be able to trust her.

Several hours had passed and we had performed an extensive series of scans of the area and decided that there was no more information for us to glean from the debris field. As we compared notes on our scans and investigations, we came to the conclusion that the attack on the Mars Defense Fleet had taken place approximately two years ago, which would put the time of the attack roughly around the time that my shuttle from Udon was shot down over Galora. By comparing the data from Udon with the scans taken from the wreckage around Mars, it would seem that both events took place about the same time.

Sima informed me that in her next communication with Central Command she would suggest that a tactical team be dispatched to Mars and to Udon to conduct an intensive investigation, as it was obvious that an overly aggressive species was involved and that it was most likely that they had conducted both attacks in a coordinated manner.

It was now time for us to proceed to Mars. I released the magnetic clamps and with only maneuvering thrusters I moved us clear of the debris field putting us on course for the Martian surface. As Mars grew larger on the main view screen, Sima began a scan for the location of the portal complex on the planet's surface, and while she did that, I had Sheba scanning for signs of life. The planet Mars had seventeen domed cities on the surface and as we began to orbit the red planet, it became clear that all seventeen of them had been destroyed in a similar manner as the cities of Udon. The level of devastation we were seeing on the scanners and on our view screens was on a biblical level as there was nothing left to identify that a city had once been there. All that remained was a huge crater with raised jagged edges that gave a look as if they had been melted by the finger of god. A shiver ran through my slender body as I thought of Earth and hoped that humanity's home world had been spared this sort of devastation.

We made seven orbits of the red planet searching for signs of life in the hope that someone may still be alive down on the surface. Sima located the portal on our second orbit. It was then that we realized that given the level of destruction, no one could survive on the surface in the thin atmosphere of Mars for even a day, and that after two years. If any life still existed on Mars it would be found underground so we began scanning under the Martian surface, but instead of finding life, all we found was an elaborate system of tunnels and though we tried, we could not determine the length of time that has passed since their construction.

After our seventh orbit when the Cydonia Plateau came into view I slightly inclined the ship's nose toward the stars and deactivated our shields. As there was little atmosphere for our wings to be of use our decent would be made using our anti-grav pods. Sima sent the landing coordinates to my console and I plotted a course toward the large crater to the magnetic north of pyramid that was growing larger on the ship's view screen.

When Sheba informed me that we were two miles out from our landing zone Sima's console received a signal from the portal facility, which she promptly answered with a sequence of taps on her console. A few seconds after she issued the send command a red cloud of dust could be seen rising up from the inside of the crater that we had selected as our landing site. The thin red cloud was in reaction to the center of the crater sliding apart to allow us to pass under the Martian surface to a hidden landing pad.

Once we were over the crater I stopped our forward momentum and deployed the landing struts. I set the ship down gently on the floor below and the second that our struts made contact with the floor, the crater opening above us began to close. Once we were secure underground I cut the engines and disengaged the cloaking system. I had originally anticipated a surface landing and was a bit surprised to find an underground hangar under the Martian surface.

What really amazed me about this facility was that it had remained undetected for so long by the people of Earth. Over the centuries many scans had been taken of this area and some excavations had been made around the pyramids, but none ever looked at this crater that we were sitting under. Earth archeologists suspected that Mars had been inhabited long ago and looked long and hard to try and prove their theory. It was not until I had found the KC's information on Mars that I knew that Mars supported life over 17,000 years ago. I so wanted to tell my history professor back at the academy what I had found but unfortunately he probably met his fate along with everyone else that I had known on Udon.

I began powering down the flight systems while Sima began a scan of the hanger bay outside the ship. Her readings indicated that the life support system supporting the hangar bay was trying to pressurize and oxygenate the atmosphere outside the ship but was unable to complete the task. Sima found several breaches in the huge underground cavern that made up the hangar bay. Sima attempted to activate the repair bots and assign them the task of plugging the leaks but the Mars maintenance bots were not responding to her commands. We reluctantly came to the conclusion that our venture outside of the ship would have to be done in pressurized encounter suits. I was lucky that my revamped flight suit could double as an encounter suit, but unfortunately for Sima, I had the help her get into a bulky red EVA (Extra Vehicular Activity) suit that she had to wear did NOTHING to accentuate her figure.

Sima's suit contained a bulky pressurization and breathing pack that was mounted on the back of the suit and was connected by a thick hose to a fishbowl like helmet. The pressurization pack for my suit was about the size of a deck of cards and mounted to a belt that fit snugly around my waist and connected to a lightweight fishbowl like helmet via a tendril that was about the size of a drinking straw. I made a note to myself that I would have to upgrade the suits stored on this ship when we get to Central Command as the suit that Sima was wearing was probably put on this ship when it was built.

After getting Sima into her suit, it took only milliseconds to deploy my helmet, gloves, and pressurization system using my wardrobe device. We gave each other a good looking over to make sure that we both had a tight seal on our suits and helmets then we exited the ship. As we made our way down the ramp I could make out several ships similar to the ones that were assigned to Galora but unlike the ones on Galora, these had suffered some damage. The damage was mostly minor, but one ship appeared to have been struck by a huge chunk or rock that had fallen from the roof above. There was quite a bit of rock and rock dust spread about the hanger floor. Perhaps this was due to a ground quake or some sort, or perhaps it was caused by the bombardment of the planet from space.

We moved carefully across the hanger bay toward and airlock that lead to the man complex. Sima activated the controls and we entered together. As the door locked behind us we could hear a gentle hiss of air rushing in as the airlock began to pressurize. As the pressure built to a survival level, an audible warning in the Annu language was issued inside the airlock warning us that the hangar side of the airlock would fail in twenty seconds. That gave us just enough time to open the inner door and rush into the main facility before the door behind us closed and the outer seal failed.

There was no light in the facility except for the illumination devices built into our helmets. We carefully made our way down the corridor and as we moved through the debris that was strewn about the floor. Sima activated her tablet and pulled up the last known floor plan on this facility and began giving out directions. I thought it better to let her navigate since I was more nimble than she was in her bulky EVA suit. Carefully I moved what debris I could out of the way for her but that still left us both trudging through several inches of red dust from the surface and from the bits and pieces of fallen ceiling and wall panels.

We passed through several airlocks and as we got closer to the central hub that was the Command Center we found that the airlocks were less damaged than the ones we had passed through earlier. Though the seals were in better shape, the content of the air inside was not breathable.

It was as if the main power had been shut down long ago, but small parts of the station still had minimal power. At first I suspected a sort of battery back up system, but our scans for a power source came up negative. My next guess was that somewhere on the surface was a semi-functional solar cell providing power, but again, our scans could not confirm that either but we knew for sure that some of the airlocks had minimal power.

As we reached the Command Center and idea hit me. Most hangar bays have power connections that allow a parked ship to receive power from the facility so they do not have to run their engines inside the bay while maintenance is being preformed. With that thought in mind I activated a communication channel to Sheba.

Sheba, scan the hangar area for a vehicle maintenance power connection.

Power connection found... maintenance power is not available at this time.

Sheba, task our ship's maintenance bots to establish a connection to a maintenance power node.

Maintenance bots have been dispatched.

Thank you Sheba.

As we made our assessment of the Command Center we could see that this facility had been damaged as well but due to the reinforced walls and ceiling the damage was minimal. The damage to some of the consoles indicated that they were damaged due to failure or due to a power overload of some sort as the panels and control surfaces had exploded outward.

We were just about to make our way into a corridor that lead away from the Command Center when Sheba announced to us that the requested power connection had been made.

Sheba, activate shield and cloak reactors and route power from the ship to this facility

Understood.

Within seconds of Sheba's confirming my request the lights flickered to life inside the Command Center. Most of the light fixtures had been damaged and were unusable but there were enough that were functioning to give us enough light to get a better view of the facility.

As I looked around the room and took inventory of what was working and what was not, Sima took a standing position over one of the command consoles that had surprisingly flickered to life after several short burst of sparks flashed out from the underside. Unfortunately the console had come to life, but the central core that ran the consoles and this facility was offline and unreachable. While Sima urged the console to do her bidding, I contacted Sheba and requested that she assign our ship's maintenance bots to locate and activate the maintenance bots assigned to this facility. I also requested that she take control of all of the maintenance bots assigned to Mars station and have them begin restoring the central core and life support.

It took us three days to get all of the Mars station bots back online and working to make the station habitable. The central core and most of the station's electronics were knocked offline by a major EMP burst perhaps several thousand years ago as far as we could tell. Perhaps it was more than that but most of the data storage devices were turned to oatmeal by an EMP shockwave. When the bots brought the core back online it was pretty much wiped clean of its original programming and stored data. We had to augment the systems with applications and seed data that we transferred from Sheba. This was enough to get the life support working and we were able to get out of our encounter suits while we were working in the central part of the station were the airlocks were fully functional. The bots were still working on sealing the breaches and poorly functioning airlock seals throughout the rest of the station.

Once the core was back online we were able to disconnect power from our ship and deploy the backup solar array. That provided enough power until the bots got the stations reactor online. We were into our third week on Mars when Sima and I were able to move into quarters in the station's habitation area. Sima chose to occupy the quarters that once belonged to the commander of the station, and she got the best quarters as the previous commander held the rank of Admiral. Speaking of the former commander, his remains were among those that we found in the station. The Admiral had died in his bed, which led me to believe that the attack that took out the Annu's Mars station was an unexpected attack and caught the former occupants off guard.

There were one hundred and seven full skeletons in all that we found about the station. There were no obvious signs of injury and most of the remains were found in areas of the station that were opened to space so we assumed that suffocation was the cause of death. Fortunately for the former commander of this station, he died of a heart attack, which was caused when his pacemaker stopped working. A quick examination of the device showed that it was rendered inoperative from the EMP burst. Even though we had no data to prove it, our combined guess was that this station given its size and that it drew and Admiral as a commander was a pretty important facility to the Annu thousands of years ago.