21.
“All clear,” Anders said over the radio, and Takeshi made a dignified squee of excitement as he leapt away from the hull of the Seeker , traveling off into space. Antoine could tell from a glance that he’d missed on purpose. Despite that, his course quickly corrected itself as the Toormonda guided him to the correct location without the man being required to use his MMU for course correction.
Seeing that, Antoine was able to relax a little. He waited until Takeshi had finished making the jump and the other ship’s airlock had cycled completely before making the leap himself. The Toormonda was two hundred meters away from the Seeker , the length of two soccer fields. Despite being trained for EVA’s, Anders wasn’t entirely confident in his ability to gauge the jump perfectly, so having both the Toormonda’s guidance and the backup of his MMU were reassurances when it was his turn.
Despite that, his balls clenched up in fear once he was spinning in the middle of the two ships, slowly passing the distance, feeling helpless.
And then he landed on his feet in the airlock with a thud. The door closed behind him, and then the gravity pulled him forward towards the floor.
He got his feet underneath him and everything sort of reoriented in his head now that there was actually a down again. The inner airlock cycled and he joined Takeshi and Anders inside the alien ship.
They waited for the other two members to join them. Rajesh was next, followed by Liu. Once they were all aboard, a hologram abruptly appeared nearby.
“Hello, friends, and welcome to--”
Anders shot the hologram with a beanbag round. The projectile smashed into the wall behind the hologram, which didn’t even flicker.
“Apologies. I am not really there, you see. I did not mean to frighten you, Commander Anthony Anders. This is just a hologram. I plead for your forgiveness, and assure you that I am not troubled by your response to my sudden appearance,” the hologram said.
Anders lowered his weapon and frowned. “I was startled. I thought I cleared the ship.”
“You did. It was a most impressive sweep. I can tell that you have had military training in clearing large areas before. The Toormonda itself was most impressed,” the hologram said.
“You’re not the Toormonda?” Takeshi asked.
“No. I am Eolai. I am standing next to Diego at the moment, and I would ask him to join us in communicating in this way except that he is on the floor laughing so hard I fear that he is not getting enough oxygen to his brain.”
Anders tisked. “I suppose that there’s no clearing for a hologram, is there?”
“There are several technologies which would disrupt the methods used to generate this image for the human eyes, which are used to counter holograms when military or police actions are required,” Eolai explained. “In fact, soldiers and law enforcement often carry a device no larger than the weapon in your hand which is capable of such a jamming field, as well as having many other uses. It is possible for me to print up one such device from the material and instrument printer for your use, if you would like, Commander.”
Anders tisked again. “I wouldn’t mind examining one and/or reading its specs and capabilities, but I’m not bringing an unknown jamming device aboard the Seeker .”
“As you wish. I shall order one printed anyway, and you may place it in the reclaimer after you have concluded your examination of it,” the holographic Eolai said. “Oh good, it seems that Diego has recovered himself enough to join us.”
“Hey guys. I totally bet myself twenty bucks that Anders was going to shoot something when Eolai made his appearance,” Deigo’s hologram said, rezzing into existence next to Eolai. “It’s good to see you again. Before you ask, we’re standing on what I think is the flagship’s bridge and I can’t see your surroundings. Just you guys standing next to each other. Eolai wants to know how much time your suits have before you run out of air.”
Each of the crewmembers checked their O2 levels and reported that they each had a little over six hours on their timers.
“I’d like to leave at least an hour on our clock to return to the Seeker before we hit the red line,” Anders said. “So that gives us five hours for the grand tour.”
“I understand. However, given the limited amount of time that we have for this, perhaps it would be best if you separate? My peers would be happy to guide you to the areas of the ship which have to deal with your individual specialties.”
Anders frowned. “I don’t like the idea of splitting up.”
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“Relax a bit, Anders,” Takeshi said. “I understand why you’re being paranoid. But the fact is that if we spring some alien trap and die, then it still counts as a mission success because it tells the captain that the Yonohoans are untrustworthy, doesn’t it?”
Anders shot him a glare, but Eolai just laughed.
“I assure you that you are likely safer on this ship than you were before you left the Seeker . We Yonohoan are very, very serious about the safety of our children, and the Toormonda has one of the absolute highest safety ratings of any ship capable of interstellar flight,” Eolai said. “However, if you prefer to remain together, that is also acceptable.”
Anders groaned as he came to his conclusion. “I absolutely hate to say this, but we will cover more ground and get more accomplished if we split up than if we remain together.”
“Excellent!” Eolai’s hologram exclaimed. “Anders, if you will follow me, I will show you the material printer area. I have ordered up a number of items which you might find interesting. They are commonly used by security forces. I understand your reluctance to bring unknown technology aboard the Seeker and will not pressure you to do so, I simply thought that examining them would help you pass the time.”
Four more holograms appeared, and the Yonohoans requested that each member of the away team follow them so that the tour could begin.
~~~~~~
“Captain, come in Captain Moon, do you read me?” Takeshi’s voice asked over the radio. Captain Moon had already been listening to the mission channel, so she simply tapped the button to unmute herself.
“This is Captain Moon. What is it Takeshi.”
“I’d like you to apply some power to the Tunnel Drive. Don’t go anywhere, just warm it up a bit. If possible. My guide is showing me some of the instruments which would be capable of detecting it. We’re having difficulty because there are no equivalent English words for some of the Yonohoan terminology she’s flinging at me. But she says that I should find the results of even a twenty percent warm up to our drive very illuminating.”
Captain Moon considered the request. “We’ll go nice and slow, Takeshi. I’ll have engineering start to warm the girl up for you and top it out at thirty percent. The fleet knows about this little experiment, right? They’re not going to get nervous that we’re running?”
“We are aware of and approve of this educational experience, Captain Moon,” Eolai’s voice chimed in over the radio.
“And you are also monitoring the mission’s radio frequency,” Captain Moon remarked.
“Apologies, were you not expecting us to? We can mark this frequency as one not to be observed if you would prefer privacy,” Eolai said.
“No. If we require privacy in our communications we have methods and protocols for that which we have yet to demonstrate. We would prefer that any methods we mark as an attempt to secure our communication be treated as something which is not to be deciphered,” Captain Moon said.
“I understand. At your request, we will designate whatever frequencies you wish as channels to be secured and used for diplomatic reasons. Unfortunately this will not prevent the civilians on the planet from listening in entirely. Many will comply with the requests to ignore certain frequencies, but we cannot control everyone’s actions without becoming tyrants,” Eolai said.
“I understand and thank you for the consideration. When Antoine returns I’ll have him start assessing whether or not to have frequencies set aside for our secure communication methods,” Captain Moon said. “Engineering is ready, Takeshi. We’re going to start applying power now.”
Almost as soon as she finished speaking, Takeshi made an exclamation of surprise. “Ah! It is no wonder they knew where we were going to appear!” he said. “Already the instruments are detecting a massive influx of quarks and gluons, and six kinds of readings which I don’t have words for! Right now the Seeker is in the center of a sea of glowing sub-subatomic particles which is only growing larger every second.”
“We’re only at three percent power,” Captain Moon observed. “Is our engine really this noisy?”
“Unfortunately yes. At least, to the senses of a Toormonda ship it is,” Eolai’s voice said. “I’m afraid that military grade scanners make the emissions of your ship even more obvious. We are reasonably certain we’ve identified your origin point for the jump into our system. We have marked it in the Toormonda’s astrogation files for Takeshi to review. We are not asking you to confirm nor deny it at this time, and you may wait until he returns to discuss it--”
“Captain, they are accurate as to our origin point within ten light years,” Takeshi said. “I can’t be more certain of that without reviewing our our own system and the results side by side.”
“Takeshi, I would have preferred you kept that to yourself until you return to the ship,” Captain Moon said sternly.
“I apologize, but it’s more than that. They also predicted our escape trajectories when we had the Tunnel Drive powered up after they fried our drone. They were right on the money, give or take a few light years. Like I said, I’d need some sort of comparison with our own instruments to be completely certain of their accuracy, but I’m pretty certain that now that they have us in their sights, they can follow us anywhere,” Takeshi said.
Captain Moon exhaled in frustration. “Message received Takeshi. Please withhold any more discussions on the theoretical or stated powers of their military and police forces until you return to the Seeker .”
“As you wish, Captain. Takeshi Out.”
Captain Moon rubbed her brow, considering what she’d just learned. If the Tunnel Drive was truly easy to track, then that narrowed her options considerably. She needed to discuss matters further with Takeshi, but there was no having a secure conversation with the little astrophysicist while he was aboard an alien spacecraft. It was the primary reason why they weren’t even bothering to secure the radio frequency they were using to talk to the away team at the moment.