I don't own Space 1999.
Please let me know what you think.
The Drift.
A space warp.
Undetectable, unavoidable, and always painful whenever they snagged the moon and flung it across space. Sometimes the Alphans would be thrown only a few light-years away from where they had been before, to millions of light-years which took them even further away from where they had started out at.
Victor winced as he felt the bone-jarring ache in his shoulder and arm when he hit the floor of Main Mission, but nearby he heard the groans of the personnel in the room as they were thrown about.
Damnit, I wish there was a better way of detecting these things, Victor thought to himself, rethinking the same thing he'd thought time and time again in his mind whenever they encountered a space warp, however when they had left Earth they hadn't even known these things even existed until they had encountered the one just outside their solar system, which catapulted them across the galaxy, let alone how to detect them.
Not for the first time, Victor wished they had found the cash to really get space exploration going had been present. If they had so many of the issues they had with Alpha, from the minuscule hydroponic facilities, and the sheer size of the base itself might have been solved. Victor Bergman was one of thousands of people who had wanted to throw resources into the research of space exploration. It offended his dignity as a scientist to just construct a base on the moon, doing the bare minimum to venture beyond; the Voyager ships didn't really count, although having the Queller drive would certainly help despite the dangers, maybe if they had they would have better facilities here on Alpha.
But unfortunately, it had never happened. It was no use moaning about it now, they had to just accept what little they had, and make the best of things. Victor grimaced as his teeth chattered, as though he had been thrown outside into a cold, snowy street, but this was a side effect of the space warp, and they knew from experience the warp would not last forever.
But something was wrong.
This warp felt different.
Victor didn't know how to describe it any more than anyone else on Alpha despite being one of the scientists on the base, although from what he could tell, this space warp felt like it possessed a much greater gravitational effect than normal, and it pressed him down into the ground of Main Mission, although it didn't feel like he had been pressed down strongly as he had along with the others when the moon had been broken away from Earth.
It wasn't that unusual since there seemed to be two different forms of space warp, those which had a much higher gravitational presence, and the other which didn't although it was hard for him to work out why that was. Suddenly the effects of the space warp began the subside, and he could feel the pressure on his chest and legs lift off until it was gone.
Victor took slow, deep breaths - he'd learnt the easiest way to come out of a space warp like that was to take things slowly, and breath in and out slowly in order to circulate air through his body - before he slowly clambered to his feet. The others were gasping and groaning as they struggled back to their feet.
"Is everyone alright?" John asked while he checked on everyone near where he had fallen.
David Kano gasped as he stood up, groaning from the effort; Victor watched him with concerned worry, knowing from experience the Computer technician had felt like he had been pressed to the ground, and his legs felt awkward.
"Computer is okay, Commander. It's coming on now," he reported while he punched in a command into his station.
"I meant how are you, Kano?" John asked wryly.
Kano chuckled and turned in his seat. "We've been thrown around in a meat grinder, Commander," he grinned. "How are we meant to feel?"
John chuckled as well.
Alan grunted as he stood up, rubbing his head. He'd bumped it on the desk when he'd gone down. "Man, what was with the space warp? It felt more like being thrown into a Vomitorium."
Victor winced as he thought about the zero-g training simulations which everyone assigned to Moonbase Alpha, and other astronomical projects were expected to go through.
"I don't know," Victor stepped into the debate, looking at the main scanner curiously.
"Sickbay reports everyone is alright, Commander," Paul reported, looking relieved to say so. "Dr Russell just reports a few bumps and bruises-."
Paul's report ended when there was a familiar rattling through the base.
"Oh no, not again."
"Not so soon, surely?"
"How many space warps are we going to go through today?"
Victor ignored the overlapping questions as everyone in the room who held some degree of foresight grabbed hold of the station consoles or the supports; they knew it might be useless, but they hoped to get through this new space warp without being thrown around the room.
"Main Mission, this is not a good time!" Helena's voice came over the communications channel, but the space warp swallowed up anything she might have planned to say next.
This space warp was slightly longer than the last, and it seemed to turn the moon over. The effects of the g-force washed over the entire moon, only this time the crew felt disorientated.
Fortunately, this space warp was shorter than the last one. Victor closed his eyes and tried to control his nausea. He felt physically ill after the last two space warps, and it was taking everything he had not to vomit everywhere. One look around the room told him he wasn't the only one valiantly fighting the urge either.
"That….was not pleasant," one of the crew remarked.
"Got that right!" Paul's head was on the desk of his station as he whispered that reply.
"Two space warps in just one day, that's unexpected," Alan observed, looking like he wanted nothing more than to pass out. Victor couldn't blame him; the trip through one space warp could be rough or fairly smooth, however going through two rough ones would be enough.
"Any idea where we are?" someone asked.
Sandra checked. "No, but we've definitely come a long way, none of the stars is matching any of our previous scans. There's no way of knowing where we are now."
Victor looked up at the viewing monitor. Their scanners had been the most advanced developed on Earth after years of development before Moonbase Alpha was constructed, but they were only good when the moon was in orbit around a planet, but out here where they were continuously moving due to the shifts in gravity the scanners were not so good. They were even worse when they travelled through a space warp since they had no idea just how far they travelled at the best of times.
For all they knew they could be anywhere in the universe. They could be further and further away from Earth, or they could be passing close to their planet. They had no way of telling.
"Hold it a minute," Paul said suddenly while he studied his sensors carefully. "I'm picking something up. Multiple contacts."
"Can you put it up?"
"I'll see, but the space warp has shot several of our sensor beams-," Paul said slowly before he made the appropriate adjustment and the viewing monitor shifted.
"A solar system," Alan whispered.
He was right. On the screen was a star with several planets already in view. They were travelling towards it, and Victor realised they were travelling quite quickly towards the system.
Victor was not the only one to realise they were travelling to this new solar system much more quickly than they normally did. "We seem to be heading towards the system very quickly," Kano observed, already checking with Computer to find out why before he stiffened. "Commander, I'm picking up multiple contacts alright, they are definitely in that solar system," Kano pointed.
"Are we close enough to see it?" John asked.
"I'll try…"
The view on the monitor was magnified to its highest maximum setting. The bodies of the solar system blew up in size and they could take in the details of their features, but they were still blurry since they were still too far from the solar system despite just how fast they were travelling towards it, but they didn't need help with seeing what was in the system.
Spaceships. Dozens of them. No, hundreds. At first, Victor and the rest of the Main Mission personnel were only able to see three ships originally, but they quickly realised they were wrong.
Victor had always wondered to himself if Man would ever learn to develop spaceships that were more durably built than the probe ships they used ordinarily, but with added aesthetics nailed down but he had the feeling it wouldn't be until centuries had passed and humans had eventually solved the riddle of faster than light propulsion and had begun sending ships out into the Milky Way, and even beyond they would begin constructing their ships to possess more longevity for longer voyages so they wouldn't resemble rockets made by construction girders.
Some of the ships he was seeing right now seemed to have solved that problem, although he wasn't sure from this far out and from just the visual scanners alone.
One of the ships on the screen was essentially a simple sphere. That made sense; with nothing in space that acted like air, there was no drag in space which pressed against a ship's hull like it did in the air or in the water, which was why ships, planes, and submarines were designed with special shapes which allowed the air or water to pass over them. The ship on the screen was spherical alright, but Victor couldn't see any sign of any engine in the hull made up of large hexagonal plating. There were also no sign of any windows or viewing ports. Did the people who built this ship simply find it too dangerous to design a ship with a window, with all the hazards out there? Victor had lost count of the number of times a viewing port on a ship or a probe or even one of the windows of Alpha had been punched in with a stray piece of space debris left behind by years of accumulated space junk which had been accelerated to travel millions of hours per hour.
It would be logical for a spaceship to be constructed of two hulls which would be covered with a shell dotted with different sensors in order to reduce the risk, so Victor could definitely understand if that was the case here.
But how did it move?
Victor couldn't see any sign of any conventional engine, and it made him curious while he ran through his mind the kinds of propulsion systems this ship could use, but he had to admit he was out of his depth here while he tried to find so many answers to his questions, and as a result he almost missed the next ship which caught his attention.
The next ship was essentially just a long gunmetal grey cylinder with the hull separated into eight spheres that were moulded into the hull as if they had been vacuum moulded. He could just see the engine, and the closest he could compare it with was a Voyager probe equipped with a more powerful version of the Queller drive.
"Wow, look at that," Alan was awed when he caught sight of the next ship, and nobody could blame him if the sounds of amazement and mutters were anything to go by.
This space ship - was it a space ship given its size? - was perhaps the most intricate vessel Victor had ever seen in his life. When Victor had been a boy, he had been taken by his grandfather to visit a friend who manufactured and repaired watches. Victor had spent many hours in the man's workshop, just observing the intricate way the watchmaker delicately assembled the watches, with every move timed and honed to precision until he had a working watch.
The experience had had an effect on Victor, who had learnt from the watchmaker the best way to make something or to observe something was to be immensely precise and work ahead to that same precision.
But how many watchmakers were required to just build this ship? Victor couldn't help but ask himself as he scanned the ship's features. It was essentially a sphere made up of nothing but rings that were supported by four spokes, and the rings rotated slowly inside one another while there was a larger sphere made of some transparent substance that held it all in, all to induce artificial gravity. Victor couldn't think of any other reason why the rings would be rotating within one another, but the most interesting thing was the ship did seem to be rotating much like a conventional planet with an axis of its own.
"Some kind of space colony?" John's voice which was so close to him made Victor jump, and he turned to his old friend.
"Could be," Victor replied softly as his eyes traced every detail of one of the rings before his eyes caught another one. "Remarkable. Could you imagine how long it must have taken to design such a structure?"
John nodded, his own eyes glazed as he tried to imagine how much time and intellect had gone into design something so intricate. Artificial gravity induced by rotation had always been around, and Earth had even experimented with a few test ships which had rotating sections to induce artificial gravity. The theory was since rendered obsolete since the first gravity motors and gravity plates appeared after a few experiments which tinkered with a theory of everything, but Victor could see why a species who wanted to construct a space colony which travelled through space would go the other route.
With a larger ship with rotating sections, the colonists and crew would feel they were still on a planet or a moon, and there would be no need to worry about visiting planets on a frequent basis since they would have almost everything they needed. Still, he couldn't help but wonder just how long it had taken for this race of aliens to construct a ship this big. He had no idea if they had constructed the ship through the use of automated machines, which would be practical and beneficial since machines could work for hours without needing to be recharged if they had the right power source.
The next ship which caught Victor's eye was almost disappointing, it was incredibly tiny when compared to the spherical colony, but on closer inspection, the scientist could make out the similarities to some of the first Earth space capsules.
"Paul, are we close enough yet to initiate contact procedures?" John asked.
Paul checked but he sighed with disappointment. "No, sir. We're still too far away. Estimates show we should be close to initiating contact procedures in another four hours."
John sighed himself, but Victor remained silent as he watched as another space ship appeared on the screen. At first, he was reminded vividly of a rocket out of a Dan Dare comic, but as he looked closer he saw the ship possessed nacelles connected to the wings. The nacelles were both short, but sleek, and much like the original spherical shaped ship, this ship didn't have any visible viewports or windows, which made Victor wondered if the idea of developing spacefaring races eventually opted not to endanger the lives of their ships and their crews by constructing their ships with scanners that allowed them to see outside their ship without putting them in danger.
"God, that one's a bruiser," Alan muttered, and a few other men nodded in agreement as they spotted the large ship that had just drifted into view (Victor still wasn't sure if the ships or colonies in this flotsam even had anyone on them, although he lived in hope these aliens were peaceful, he doubted this one was if they designed their ships like this).
The ship was clearly some kind of warship with a dagger-shaped body with two swept-back wings which joined to two stubby nacelles much like the previous ship Victor had studied, but that was as far as similarities went. This ship was covered with all kinds of weapon platforms with visible missile silos dotted all over the hull. The weapons…. Victor honestly had no idea what they could do; since Breakaway, they had encountered more than their fair share of powerful weapons, some of them seemed to be augmented versions of the ones used by Earth by the time of their accident, but most of the time…
Victor knew one thing, he didn't want to be anywhere near this ship in a battle. It just seemed to radiate a threatening aura that he simply did not like, and he wondered what kind of minds drove the ship. The ship was coloured a gunmetal grey, although darker than one of the original ships he had seen when they had first sighted the flotsam, and the back of the hull seemed to be slightly lowered in proportion with the dagger-shaped forward hull, and the nacelles were narrow. If ships had expressions, Victor could imagine this one was frowning. It was a threatening and intimidating look, and not one anyone in their right minds would want to be near.
The warship was dwarfed by a ship that was more larger and seemed to be constructed with a focus more on organic looking aesthetics that gave it a striking looking. The ship resembled a crossed between a bird or an ocean-going manta ray mixed with the form of the whale, and it was long - Victor knew Kano would give the precise measurement in a moment if he felt it relevant, but he was going to go with the hunch and estimate the ship having a length of roughly a few miles. It certainly seemed long enough, but the true reason for the ship's girth was the wings. Unlike the warship before it, this ship's wings were large and gave it an impression of power the other ships simply could not match. But this latest ship was nothing compared to what happened next.
"My god!" Paul's whisper could barely even describe the behemoth that had happened on the screen.
It was another spherical ship, only if the one before was the size of a moon this was the size of a gas-giant. This spherical spaceship was surrounded in an outer frame which seemed to act in the same manner as the harness of a mountain rock climber, but jutting from the outer frame at intervals were what looked like retro-rockets but they were enormous. Victor tried to imagine their sheer power and he simply could not see it. He had no way of knowing if they were nuclear rockets, or something more sophisticated.
"It's like a bubble," John commented, "it's almost like the last one."
Victor agreed, but he and John were both aware the first spherical space ship's outer sphere was a protective layer, perhaps it even contained the atmosphere of the colony. This sphere's shell was essentially a collection of semi-translucent bubbles which covered the surface.
"MY APOLOGIES!"
Everyone jumped in Main Mission when the voice boomed out of the radios. Paul and Sandra were instantly checking the channels, but the voice went on.
"I AM IMMENSELY SORRY; MY FASTER THAN LIGHT DRIVE HAS MALFUNCTIONED AND BROUGHT YOU HERE."
"Kano, is that transmission coming from the ship directly in front of us?" John asked quickly.
"No, Commander. It's coming from another ship, and it's coming straight towards us," Kano replied. "The message…Computer has just examined it. It's just a general hail."
"Put it up," Koenig ordered.
The view on the screen changed. It was clear to Victor the other spaceships that were floating in this solar system had been the pinnacle of development for their respective races, indicating that like Earth, they had worked on space travel for decades, perhaps millennia. But this ship…
"It's like the next generation for the Meta, Voyager and Ultra Probes, with a splash of sci-fi thrown in," Paul commented.
Victor had to agree.
The ship was certainly very primitive when compared to the other ships on the screen in the background. It was rounded and appeared to be a giant bullet or a missile, and it was rotating which indicated other people experimenting with rotational gravity. It had clearly been constructed with the same functionality over appearance as humans currently did. The ship was broken up into several segments, and it was clear to everyone in Main Mission those segments could be broken off at the crew's discretion. But none of the Main Mission personnel could work out what those segments were, although they guessed, using their own experiences with space travel as a guide, they were used for storage of supplies, hydroponics for their race's plants for food and additional life-support systems. The nose-cone was similar but differently designed than what the long-range Earth mission vessels favoured.
The aft section of the ship was essentially a large rocket motor with conduits and pipes joined with a mishmash of fuel tanks. The curious thing about the ship, and the reason why Paul had pointed out the similarities between this ship and the Earth Voyager probe ships before the Queller drive disaster with the last one which had been launched which had called for a ban on all Queller drive designs which were planned for launch away from the Sol System, and were cancelled when so many lives were lost; there were three large mirrored panels on some kind of scaffold. Victor wondered if they were solar panels or some kind of advanced solar sail, however, they seemed to double as some kind of sensor array if the dishes and aerials mounted onto the spheres on the top of the scaffolds were anything to go by.
"That's a faster than light ship?" Someone asked.
"I know, it looks a bit clunky, but don't forget; some of our best discoveries were made in ships that looked much like that one does," Sandra commented.
"Well said," John nodded in approval to Sandra's words. "Paul, contact procedure; see if we can speak to them. If they've got a faster than light drive, we could make some use of it, but don't tell them that."
Victor walked over to John, keeping his eyes on the screen thoughtfully. "What do you think Victor?"
Victor shrugged. "I have no idea. There are many theories of faster than light propulsion; most of them involve knowledge of physics we just don't understand. I can tell most here don't see it as an FTL ship."
"You're not convinced either?"
"I don't know, John; twenty years ago I would have said the type of disaster which blew us out of Earth's orbit would be virtually impossible and only possible in theory. In any case, this ship doesn't necessarily need to travel in a conventional way to what we're used to. Don't forget our meeting with the Cartha; they said something about an under space, and we still don't know how it works. Who knows?"
"Commander," Paul interrupted as he examined his workstation. "That ship is sending a transmission."
"OH, THANK THE GODS. YOU'RE ALL ALIVE. I AM SO SORRY ABOUT THE TRAVEL-MAT SYSTEM," the same voice from the first transmission said over the radio, "ARE YOU ALL ALRIGHT?"
John made a hand gesture to Paul. "We've had a few bumps and bruises, and we were a little shaken when we passed through the space-warps-."
"SPACE WARPS? WHAT ARE SPACE WARPS? NO, WHAT YOU EXPERIENCED WAS MY SHIP'S MALFUNCTIONING FASTER THAN LIGHT SYSTEM."
These people don't know anything about space warps? Interesting, Victor thought to himself.
John licked his lips. "A space warp is essentially just a fold in space; we don't know how they work, so don't ask. There are theories they are traversable wormholes, but we've never been able to examine one to be certain due to our moon's constant motion through space. How did your Faster than Light drive bring us here?"
"A WORMHOLE? I'M FAMILIAR WITH THE THEORY, BUT NO; OUR DRIVE SYSTEM MAKES USE OF A DISCOVERY OUR PEOPLE MADE WHEN WE FIRST ACHIEVED SPACE-FLIGHT. WE DISCOVERED A NUMBER OF CORRIDORS WHICH THREAD THROUGH THE COSMOS, ALLOWING FASTER THAN LIGHT TRAVEL. MY GOVERNMENT WORKED ON TWO WAYS WE COULD TAKE ADVANTAGE OF IT; TELEPORTATION, OR SIMPLY TRAVEL THROUGH THE CORRIDORS LIKE ORDINARY SPACECRAFT TRAVEL THROUGH SPACE."
"Corridors through space?" John said thoughtfully, thinking the exact same thing everyone else who had been in Main Mission on the day the Cartha had appeared in Alpha. "It just so happens, we have heard of corridors similar to the ones you described, from a race known as the Cartha-."
"YOU KNOW OF MY PEOPLE? HOW?"
John looked around the room, surprised. "You're a Cartha?"
"YES….HOWEVER, THAT DOES NOT ANSWER MY QUESTION," the Cartha replied.
"No, no it doesn't," John whispered, looking at the rest of the main mission crew as he tried to think of a way he could speak to the Cartha without the pilot losing his temper. "You see, we've encountered your people. They were driven out of their home galaxy when their technology which moved them through space in a similar manner to your faster than light drive caused the inhabitants of your home galaxy to attack them. The Cartha escaped and they rebuilt."
Victor was surprised John would disclose those details to the Cartha pilot, but he quickly realised if the pilot came to Alpha, some of the Alpha personnel would probably let something slip.
"HOW DID THIS HAPPEN? ARE MY PEOPLE…ALRIGHT? CAN YOU HELP ME FIND THEM?"
"They are. Although, I am not sure if we can help; you see our moon has no navigational system, and we're drifting through space. In any case, your people used this…Gateway technology to move us from one galaxy to another," John replied though he was wondering how he could admit the experience of being driven out of their home galaxy had turned the Cartha into a xenophobic race. In the end, he decided not to say anything. "Listen, is there any way you can get us out of this solar system?"
"I HAVE TRIED, MANY TIMES. UNFORTUNATELY, I AM NOT A TRAINED ENGINEER NOR AM I A PILOT. I HAVE BEEN STRANDED HERE FOR CENTURIES. WE CARTHA ARE A LONG-LIVED RACE. I AM - OR I WAS - THE CAPSULE'S DOCTOR."
"What was your mission?"
"WE WERE SENT OUT TO THE TEST THE LATEST VERSION OF THE GATEWAY TECHNOLOGY. WHEN WE DISCOVERED THE UNDERSPACE CORRIDORS, WE REALISED IT COULD TAKE MANY THOUSANDS OF YEARS TO PROPERLY MAP THEM OUT, ALTHOUGH WE COMMENCED ON THE PROJECT, FOR OUR DEEP RANGE COLONIES, WE DECIDED TO FIND A WAY OF TELPORTING OURSELVES THROUGH THE NETWORK SO WE ARRIVED AT OUR DESTINATIONS QUICKLY. IT TOOK YEARS TO DEVELOP THE METHOD, AND EVEN LONGER TO PROPERLY WORK ON THE FINER DETAILS SO WE COULD TEST IT. MY SHIP AND MY CREW WERE ONE OF MANY TEST-SHIPS TO STUDY THE METHOD."
"Where are these corridors?" Victor couldn't help but ask.
"WHO IS THIS?"
"My name is Victor Bergman," Victor replied for himself, seeing that John wasn't particularly happy with the interruption, but John knew him well enough to know he wouldn't be speaking unless he was curious. "I am one of the scientists in this moon-base."
"A SCIENTIST?" There was excitement in the Cartha's otherwise calm voice. "DO YOU BELIEVE YOU CAN ASSIST ME WITH THE REPAIRS, SO I CAN TRY TO FIND MY PEOPLE?"
"I could try, if I had access to your ship's technical files," Victor's voice was neutral, although everyone could tell he was excited at the thought of learning something new. "Teleportation experiments on Earth were in their infancy when we left, but I think I might be able to help you."
"Is there any chance you can land on Alpha, so we can speak and Victor can take a look at your Gateway drive?" John interrupted, sending a look at Victor.
"I CAN SEPARATE MY SHIP, AND I CAN TAKE VICTOR BERGMAN BACK HERE SO HE CAN EXAMINE MY SHIP. HOWEVER, WE SHALL HAVE TO MOVE QUICKLY; MANY OF THE SHIPS ARE IMMOBILISED, HOWEVER, THEY ROUTINELY EMPLOY PIRACY AGAINST NEWCOMERS SO THEY CAN TAKE SUPPLIES."
Victor shared a worried look with John, and he noticed the others looked concerned as well.
"I will come," he spoke up before John could interrupt. "I shall bring a team with me. However, we should like to know more about this Underspace and how it works."
"IT GOES AGAINST MY RACE'S SECURITY; HOWEVER, SINCE YOU ARE HELPING, I SHALL PROVIDE IT FOR YOU."
XXX
"Victor, why are you taking the risk?" John asked as they headed for the travel tube which would take them to the airlock where the Cartha ship's cockpit had landed only twenty minutes ago. The decision was simple - the Cartha would remain on the ship while Victor led a team of scientists and two security guards to protect them, much to Victor's annoyance although he knew the order was sound given their last meeting with the Cartha.
"You know why, John," Victor said. "If we can help the Cartha, we might be able to bring back some knowledge of the Underspace technology."
"I hope you're right, Victor," John said, shaking his hand.
The scientist smiled and he shook his friend's hand warmly before he went to the tube and he went inside, looking back and smiling at his friend.
John smiled before he turned and headed back for Main Mission.
XXX
Six hours later, John was looking at the Cartha ship, knowing something was wrong, and as the second ticked by he felt his concerns solidify. It had been six hours since they had sent up the team to the ship, and aside from the initial message, there had been nothing. Alan was already preparing an Eagle to travel to the ship to find out what was wrong, but John had held off on the order since he had wanted to wait five hours, but now it was time for them to find out what was going on.
"Anything?" he asked the rest of the Main Mission crew.
"Nothing, Commander," Sandra replied, her voice just as tense.
John sighed.
"Wait, I'm getting something," Paul reported.
"Let's hear it."
"…..calling Alpha. Repeat, Professor Victor Bergman, calling Moonbase Alpha."
"Professor Bergman, this is Paul, we're reading you," Paul said excitedly.
Victor sighed. "Paul, thank god!"
"Victor, what happened?" John quickly took control of the situation when he detected the sound of exhaustion in the scientist's voice.
"That Cartha, John….He brought us here deliberately. He's already killed four of the team."
"What?" John repeated horrified.
"I'd better start at the beginning. It's a long story."
"Yes, please, tell us," John said before he turned to Paul. "Get Alan up there, now. Make sure he takes medical personnel with him as well as extra security."
Victor had overheard what John had said but he said nothing about it as he began reciting what had happened. "Give me a chance to think and get it out, John, Please… Alright, it started when we boarded the Cartha ship. He was extremely polite and helpful. He ferried us back to his ship, and he showed us around, although there was a section near the engineering decks which he claimed were contaminated by radiation. John, we were amazed and fascinated," Koenig could hear the scientific interest in Victor's voice, although it was marred with exhaustion and grief. "And then he showed us the engine. John, it was breaking down slightly, but we didn't know why at the time. The Cartha provided us with the specifications on the drive, so working on it was easy.
"The problem came when we found the bodies of his former crew. While the Cartha had been polite and helpful, he quickly showed he was a xenophobic as the Cartha we met before, only worse. He was rude to some of us, and he even frightened us, demanding we work faster. Well, I and Maurice, one of the security guards, went out to explore the ship while the others kept him occupied. We found the bodies of the crew. John," Victor swallowed; clearly what he had seen had been the stuff of nightmares, "they had been dissected, but there were signs he had killed them all with some kind of gun which used chemical bullets. He murdered them all, not because he was bored, but because he claimed they were in the way. They must have been like the Cartha I imagined after we heard their story of how they were treated in their galaxy, they just wished to explore space, not conquer it. I don't know for sure, there are no signs of any kind of pitched fight. He must have been insane…but either way, he murdered them all, and he began dissecting them for some reason.
"But the Cartha had already worked out we were down in the engineering decks, and he killed four of our party, although they managed to fight him off, he came after us. He attacked me and Maurice, injuring Maurice by stabbing him in the shoulder. I managed to shoot him four times to stun him, and I tied him up with a plastic flex before I had the others drag him back to the flight deck where we interrogated him.
"He has wanted to conquer the galaxy for some time; apparently, he and many others among their people wanted to forge a mighty empire using the Gateway technology. The other Cartha believed their ends did not justify the means, and they denounced them as mad."
"I doubt that's the case right now, considering their attitudes," John commented grimly, remembering the Cartha's attitude.
"You're right, John. Anyway, he carried out his plan to use the Gateway to drag ships here so then he would have hundreds of spaceships so then he could accelerate the technological revolution back home; he wouldn't say how he planned to convince the Cartha he hadn't killed the crews or passengers, or even his own crew. But he must have come up with something convincing."
"What do you mean, he killed the crews and passengers?" John asked, worried, knowing the Cartha wouldn't have had any trouble doing the same with Alpha.
"We found the remains, John, and we've also found two of our own people up here; he kidnapped them with the Gateway, I think. Andre Morell, and Paula Meadows. We also found a host of other materials in the lab, materials I think are geared for generating bioweapons."
John shuddered at the thought of a bioweapon being used on everyone in Alpha. "Go on," he forced himself to say, hoping to get the story settled.
"It looks like he quickly kidnaps people from those whom he kidnapped, and then experimented on them to create bioweapons before he sent it through the Gateway, but it has been breaking down from overuse recently. However, I think we can use it."
"Victor, what happened to the Cartha?"
"He's dead, John. He managed to get loose, and he attacked us. We had no choice but to kill him. As for the Gateway drive…-," Victor was about to say, but John lost his patience.
"Oh, forget the drive, Victor," Koenig shouted, startling everyone in earshot. "It's responsible for the death of millions."
"I know, John, believe me," Victor said calmly, unfazed by the anger. "However, we can still use the technology to escape from here, travel across space without the need to worry about our course. And the gravity here, helped by the drifting ships, is keeping us here for longer. We have plenty of time to study this ship, and the others here."
"That sounds like grave robbing, to me, Victor."
"I don't like it either, John. But think…don't you remember the Ultra Probe, how Tony told us about the spaceships there?"
Koenig stiffened at the reminder of a disaster, only for everyone to be forced to eat some humble pie since Tony was proven right, although it had cost his life.
"These ships can help us find a planet where we can colonise. Let's face it, John; we have the supplies on Alpha, but these ships could really help us get going with colonising a new world, and we would have the technology to really go out into space. John, at our current rate, we are only seeing one hostile planet after another. These ships can help us find a new world, a place to colonise."
Everyone in Main Mission turned to their Commander, wondering what he was going to say. Meanwhile, Koenig was lost in thought as he pondered about what had been said. The reminder over how Tony Cellini had seen those ships, and he, John, had urged the Commissioner at the time to finance a return trip to salvage the ships, all to accelerate human advancement into space travel.
Koenig's ideas had been sound.
Humanity had been developing space technology slowly but surely, but those ships could have answered the questions many scientists asked, and believed if they didn't have an outside source of help, then it would take years if ever to get the answers for themselves. Questions on artificial gravity. The longevity of the ship and fuel systems. New propulsion methods.
"Alright," Koenig said, his mind turning back to that argument where Tony was hauled over the coals, but also the irony of how this Cartha would approve of the stance of his people at the moment since they had become xenophobic and suspicious of others. "Get back to Alpha. We'll need to form a plan on how we're going to do this."
"Right, John."