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Chapter 4

Clues

copyright (c) 2016 FarmWolf's player

Aboard Alliance Starship Lindbergh, Survey Orbit of Polaris

Kisara

Sitka, Sirta, and I materialized inside a large box on Peter Icefield's ship. When we were completely solid, he stepped forward and said, "Welcome aboard the Lindbergh." We bent toward each other, stopping with our noses a few centimeters apart in the formal greeting I'd taught him on the Ceokera.

"Thank you, Captain," I replied.

"Here's a common way that humans greet each other," he said, extending his right paw. I extended my left to match it. "No, no, you extend your right hand as well and we clasp them for a moment." I did as he said and he wrapped his paw around mine and raised it up slightly, then back level. "Remember to keep your grip relatively firm and look the other person in the eye." He let go and repeated the greeting with my officers.

As the captain led us through his ship, I felt like we were inside a set of cabinets. The ship was divided into boxes with straight tunnels between them. There wasn't any cover, but when I tested the floor material with my claws, I decided it would give sufficient traction if we had to run. Before long, the tunnel opened into a low-ceilinged cave with seats in rows. When I sniffed the air it smelled similar to the tunnel, but with additional scents which I presumed were from the seats. We passed through this area, went through another shorter tunnel, and emerged into another cave with seats, this time arranged in groups around tables. The captain invited us to sit and when he saw that we were comfortable, he spoke.

"Before we continue the tour, I must inform you that this ship is not typical of Terran abilities. It was constructed by relatively advanced techniques. I am what some call a master. In my case, it means I can see through the illusions most people consider reality, and because I can do so, I am able to manipulate "reality." I created the Lindbergh and most other Alliance equipment using this knowledge. The Alliance's primary mission is improvement of the quality of life for the people of Earth. Secondary missions include scientific exploration. That's why we're here. This star is an important one for our planet; it stays directly above our North Pole. As such, it has served our navigators since before recorded history. Are there any questions so far?"

Sitka had one. "Would you explain a bit more about being a master? From what you said, it sounds like you're some kind of spiritual adept. How did you acquire these abilities and what kinds of things can you do with them?"

"I'd be glad to answer your question, Commander. As I'm sure you know, situational awareness is immensely important in any sort of mission--as well as in life itself. A person who exercises situational awareness for long enough will begin to perceive and understand things beyond this physical world. And with that understanding will come the ability to manipulate things for the better in your life, through actions as simple as positive thinking.

"As for what I can do with my abilities, at my level of situational awareness, I can do almost anything. Mostly, though, I serve as an example of how a person should live--regardless of their level of situational awareness."

"Thank you, Captain." Sitka said, and I made a mental note to observe him more closely.

As the captain led us to the Lindbergh's engineering section, we discussed the information I'd lent him about the transwarp project.

"I'm impressed," he said. "Developing transwarp drive was quite an achievement for your people, given the challenge of formulating the proper injector alloy."

"Thank you. After the six years required to invent a working injector, it took another four years to create an injector with the proper stability for long-term transwarp operation. After the accident, we progressed more slowly, and we had better opportunities to tune the injector."

"Your efforts certainly paid off. I particularly enjoyed the accounts of your work, and your engineering logs. If anyone could have fixed that injector, it was you."

The shock on my face seemed to confuse Captain Icefield.

"Felix told me almost the same thing over a hundred years ago," I explained. "His version was hopeful about the future. He said, 'If anyone can fix that injector, it's you.' Those were his exact words."

"But why were you shocked when I said that?" the captain asked. "Surely many people must have said the same thing."

"They've complimented me," I replied, "but no one else has used those exact words."

In Engineering, Icefield explained the basics of his transwarp drive's operation. We listened intently, eager to understand how his ship could go so much faster than ours could. The answer is that Earth resides in a part of the galaxy containing an abundance of penta-unobtainium, or U-5, the substance which best lends itself to transwarp field generation. Katara resides in an area of the galaxy which lacks it. Though we can synthesize U-5, our science has yet to create enough of it to power a starship. Our ships run on regular unobtainium, making for far less efficient transwarp flight.

As we walked past an engine power output display, something caught my eye. I moved away from the group toward the console, inquiring, "Is this a display of the engines' power flow?"

"It is," the captain confirmed.

"May I?"

"By all means."

I stepped up to the console and called up a detailed diagram of the fuel transfer rates and intermix ratios. "If you were to adjust this intermix value by 0.09 percent and increase the flow rate slightly, would it increase your cruising speed?"

He ran a simulation at the console. "You know, I think it would. The top end of our cruising range would be higher and we'd be more efficient at that speed, too. Thank you."

"I try to help people improve on things when I can," I said

"An excellent quality for any being to posses," he replied.

"I may be a captain now, but I'll always be an engineer."

"It's good that you can continue doing what you love."

As we left Engineering, I asked a question that had been on my mind since the captain's welcome briefing. "I assume the Lindbergh has a crew, captain. May I know why we have not seen them?"

"Certainly," he replied. "The Lindbergh doesn't technically require a crew. Petra can do everything required for her successful operation. She's mostly an experimental vessel."

That piqued my curiosity. "How many other such vessels do you have, if I may ask?"

"Lindbergh is the only one of this capability," he replied. "I have a smaller one which is perhaps a hundredth the Lindbergh's mass, though she has similar speed and range."

Icefield stopped outside what he called a holodeck.

As we walked through the doors, we found ourselves inside a large, square stone cave. A complex piece of music played for a short time, then died away.

"This is a hologram of where I live," the captain said. "It's called Alliance Castle."

We moved through the large area to another smaller one with a long table and chairs.

First, he passed around a metal drinking vessel. We complimented him on the realism of his hologenerators. What he did next, though, shocked us.

For the next demonstration, he picked up a folded paper packet and sliced it open with a morphogenic claw!

"You have morphogenic claws, too?!" Sirta blurted.

"It's one of the first modifications I would make to a human body," he explained.

I was equally surprised. "How are you able...? Yes, you're a master. But, that you would choose this exact configuration...I know there are coincidences but this is ridiculous."

"There's a reason for most things that we encounter, if we look deep enough," he told me.

Peter

Our cultural exchange/solar survey lasted nearly a week. I don't think the actual study of the star would have taken that long, but the Katarans and we kept finding excuses to extend our visit. We humans were fascinated by the first alien culture we had encountered. They seemed interested in us as well, but also were fascinated by the starship from a technological backwater that could fly at a million times the speed of light. Steiger informed me that the specifications for the Lindbergh were currently the number one reading item aboard her ship. Many Katarans beamed over to tour the Lindbergh, including several more visits by Steiger. I had visited the Ceokera several more times as well and Kisara Steiger and I were soon on a first-name basis.

On my latest visit, I had asked to look at the workings of the Ceokera's telescopes. These devices functioned on a quantum level. They saw all wavelengths and could be networked to form a telescope the size of the ship itself. By deploying a set of probes, they could make a telescope the size of a planet, a solar system, or even larger.

"Follow me," Kisara said, and we left the telescope and made our way to the rec park we had seen on our first visit. "This way, come on!" She cruised through the semidark of the night cycle and up a winding path, stopping abruptly at the edge of the scaled-down cliff. I stopped behind her, panting a little. "This is my favorite place on the ship," she told me, then looked up and said, "Notice anything different?"

I turned my own gaze to the simulated heavens and thought a moment. "The stars aren't closer, are they?"

"You've got it. Go ahead and reach for one."

Bemused, I did as she said and to my surprise the star came obediently toward us when I drew my hand back. When I released it, it swelled to the size of a softball, and we could see sunspots speckling it and solar prominences arcing on its surface. The corona was a spiky mist and when we looked farther out a lifeless rock and two gas giants orbited their cosmic anchor.

"These aren't to scale, are they?"

"No, the planets would be much smaller and we wouldn't see them move."

"Amazing. I assume I put it back like this?" I grasped the star and tossed it into the air, and it resumed its place in the sky.

"You've got it."

"There's the star we're orbiting now," she said, pointing.

I pulled Polaris and its two companions toward us. A copy remained in the sky, I noticed.

"The telescopes feed the sky display?"

"Yes," Kisara answered. "They continually add data to an onboard database which produces the simulation."

"Then your home system is in here."

"Certainly. It's right over...there we go." Kisara reached out and pulled another star toward us. It stopped and expanded revealing a mix of gas giants and smaller planets. She indicated the fourth one. "Here's where I'm from. There're seven in all. Four solids and three...where'd the third giant go?" We looked around and I pointed over her shoulder. "Yes, there it is!" she said. Then, Kisara grasped her sun and sent it up to fly with all the rest. "Let's look at a pulsar next and then I know where there's a black hole."

Kisara and I sat on her cliff in the rec park and pulled endless spectacular, three-dimensional, interactive views out of the sky. When she pointed out a particular constellation, its position surprised her.

"My shift starts in just a few hours," she said.

"Okay, I'll let you go to bed. It was fun to look at space with you. See you tomorrow!"

"It's late, Peter. Why don't you spend the night with me?"

I started. "What? I don't know you that well!"

"What do you mean?" She looked at me, confused.

"Well," I said, "in my culture, that invitation has a connotation of, um, intimacy."

"Of course sleeping together is intimate, but it's not like I asked you to mate with me."

"What exactly did you have in mind, then?"

"All I'm asking you to do is sleep, and maybe talk some if we happen to wake up at the same time."

"Then I accept."

Kisara led me to an area near the side of the ship. The trees thinned out and what looked like a row of caves appeared. We walked toward one and she dropped to all fours briefly to go inside. I stooped and followed her.

She ran one hand along the wall leaving a brighter streak in the ambient bioluminescence and asked, "Is that light adequate, Peter?"

"Yes, it's fine. Um, where do we sleep?"

"Over in that corner. Feel free to stargaze a little more to relax if you want," she said, removing her uniform and placing it in a replicator slot.

I glanced at her for a moment, then looked around. She was not unattractive, but her nudity was so natural and unsuggestive that it made no difference whether she was clothed or not.

I had graduated from that thought to wondering how one could stargaze from inside a cave when I noticed that it had no back. Rather, the back of the cave was a single large window looking out into space. After picking out a couple of the constellations Kisara had showed me on the cliff, I suddenly yawned, then with a thought changed from my uniform into pyjamas.

Kisara took one look at me and barked that laugh of hers. "You wear clothes to sleep?"

"Yes, I do, usually. Lots of people do where I'm from."

"Well, if you're ready we should lie down."

I looked where she inclined her muzzle and it was my turn to laugh.

"What's so funny?"

"That seven-foot body pillow in the corner. It looks like a giant dog bed. No offense."

"I'd love to see your planet some day. I may find your beds as amusing as you find ours. If we both live long enough, we may find ourselves on the same trail again."

"That would be nice," I said, and lay down facing the stars. Kisara stepped over me and lay down facing the window as well, nestling her shoulders against my chest. My parents and I had gone camping with my Great Pyrenees dog and he had slept with me the same way. Now, as then, the feel of a big warm furry body nesting against me gave me an extra sense of peace and now, as then, I worked my hand into the fur of my bedmate's shoulder just before I drifted off.

Kisara

I floated in the realm between dreams and wakefulness, puzzling over Peter's comment about the project logs I lent him. He'd said, "If anyone could have fixed that injector, it was you." Nobody had told me anything close to that before. I fell asleep thinking about that.

The first time I woke during the night, I recalled that when we first scanned Peter's ship, the transwarp power signature was almost the same as ours were a hundred years before. His ship was far more powerful, but the fundamental signature was nearly identical. I pondered this while I stargazed for a few minutes, went out and got a drink from the river, and returned to bed.

When I awoke again, Peter was up, too. I asked him a few questions about his morphing claws. Their appearance and function were identical to ours. I had trouble believing that was a coincidence. I replicated a snack and when I offered some to Peter he declined, saying humans don't usually eat during their sleep cycles. We went back to bed and I thought some more. In a dream Admiral Sitka, a good friend as well as a mentor, repeated what she'd told me many times in real life--that there's a reason for nearly everything. And then I realized that Peter had said the same thing just the other day.

The third time I woke, Peter smelled like Felix.

I literally could not believe my nose. I must have lain there sniffing for over a hundred heartbeats before I convinced myself that the scent was real and not in my mind. As soon as I realized that, I recalled the first time Peter and I spoke to each other, introducing ourselves and defining our missions. He said he was looking forward to meeting with me and I could tell that he meant it. It was almost as though he was glad I'd found him...

I'd found him?

A massive chill coursed through my body as I realized what this could possibly mean. And then, I knew without any doubt what it meant and understood what I had to do,,,

I rolled over and looked at Peter, still asleep in those strange clothes he wore to bed. I rose to my knees, leaned toward him, and sniffed. The scent of Felix was gone. I froze, intuition and common sense at war inside me. Then something tipped the balance and I put my muzzle up to his ear and whispered, "Felix?"

Nothing happened.

Utterly confused, I put my paws down on the bed to support my now trembling body and released the breath I didn't know I was holding. I must have hit Peter with one of my paws because at the same time I exhaled, he woke up. He made a small sleepy noise, then opened his eyes and locked them on my open muzzle.

I don't know whose yelp was louder--his, or mine.