The Agathon: Book One (22 page)

16

M
edical Bay

Twenty Days since departure

14:43 Martian Standard

C
arrie sat by Chavel’s bio bed as Brubaker briefed the captain on the status of the three members of Beta Team. Tyrell was sitting upright and looking over at Barrington. He was wearing a breather. Young was unconscious and undergoing surgery.

“His leg is severed just below the knee,” said Brubaker. “Seems like a gas pocket opened up right underneath it and tore it clean off. He’ll live and we have bio synthetic replacements on board,
so he got lucky.”

“The others?” said Barrington.

“There were micro cracks in their face plates when they came on board. Tyrell has some scorching of the alveoli, as does Chavel, but I expect they’ll be back on their feet in a day or two with some dermal regenerative treatment.”

“Thank you, Michelle. Good work,” said Barrington. He walked over to Carrie.

“How are you doing, Dice?” he said softly. She looked up at him. “I think it’ll take more than an earthquake to take down this man, don’t you?” he said, smiling.

“I was going to tell you about him,” she said, after a moment.

“No need,” he replied. “We don’t have secrets, do we?” Carrie smiled.

“No, I guess we don’t,” she replied. “You need to see the data that Doctor Tyrell transmitted back. They found technology under the rock formation.”

Barrington looked over at Tyrell, who was watching them intently. “Show me,” he said, turning to meet Carrie’s gaze. He walked over to Tyrell who was sitting on the side of the bio bed and breathing heavily into an oxygenator. He put his hand on Tyrell’s shoulder.

“How are you, Tyrone?” he asked, looking into his bloodshot eyes.

“Splendid, John,” came his muffled response. “Carrie told you about the data?” he asked through a wheeze. Barrington nodded. “It’s extraordinary, John. There are markings on the surface correlating with those from the Monolith from Phobos.”

Barrington’s hand remained on his shoulder.

“With your permission, Tyrone, Carrie is going to take me to the lab to show me,” he said.

Tyrell’s brow furrowed slightly. “Of course, you don’t need my permission. I can join you now,” he replied, getting up off the bio bed. Barrington held his hand firmly on Tyrell’s shoulder.

“No, Tyrone. Doctor Brubaker needs you here for the next few hours… to monitor you. Carrie can walk me through what she has and we can discuss it further once we’ve jumped back into hyperspace. For now, just take it easy. I don’t need your lungs exploding all over the deck before we’ve reached the Aristaeus system.” Tyrell’s eyes met with his.

“Of course, Captain. There are several kilo quads of data on the cube which did not send before the accident. It’s over there on the ledge,” he said, pointing to a side table by Brubaker’s office. Barrington nodded and tapped him on the arm. Tyrell looked over at Carrie, who nodded back as she left Chavel’s side and joined her father. Barrington took the cube and they left the medical together.

“I need to go to the engine room to check on things,” he said, as they walked towards the lift.

How is your assignment going
? he thought in his head, linking with her mind. They continued through the corridor, nodding to passing crewmen.

It’s proving to be difficult. There’s something on board that is blocking me. I’m not certain, but I think it has something to do with The Black
. Barrington stopped mid stride and looked at her.

“Captain!” came a voice to his left. Chase Meridian was running towards them. She smiled at Carrie.

“Hey, Dice,” she said. Carrie smiled at her. She took Barrington’s arm and pulled him to one side.

“John, have we a saboteur on board?” she whispered virulently into his ear. Barrington took her by the arm gently.

“Easy there, Chase. Who said anything about a saboteur?” he said.

“Come on, John, who do you think you’re talking to? Everyone is saying that someone planted an explosive device on deck three and that’s what blew a hole in the hull,” she said, her face taking on a stern expression that did not suit her generally jovial nature.

“Is Young dead?” she added. Barrington rolled his eyes.

“No, he’s not dead,” he said, showing frustration. Meridian put her hands up.

“Okay, okay,” she said.

“So where are we off to?” she added.

“We’re heading to the engine room, Chase, then to Tyrell’s lab to take a look at the data that came in from a rock formation that Beta team found on the surface,” said Carrie.

“And you weren’t going to invite me?” she said with a dramatic look of shock on her face. Barrington sighed.

“Okay, Doctor, another set of eyes on this thing wouldn’t hurt,” said Barrington.

“Excellent,” she said, turning to join them. She winked at Carrie and the trio continued on towards the lift.

Engine Room

16:32 Martian Standard

Daniel Tosh was exhausted and his back hurt from prolonged use of his chair. Not to mention this mission was turning out to be far more dangerous than Young had let on and now he was possibly dead, according to Emerson who had arrived in the engine room a short time ago after ‘rescuing’ them. He was currently making adjustments to The Betty FTL chamber while Emerson was making a visual inspection of the repair work on deck three.

“Can you hand me an ionic stabiliser, Atanazja?” Tosh said to the young woman on the opposite side of the plasma duct. She nodded and walked under the tubing to hand him the tool.

“How are you feeling, Doctor? You look tired,” she said with a French accent.

“Nothing a little horizontal time wouldn’t cure,” he said. She looked at him and raised a dark brown eyebrow. Suddenly realising how that sounded to the
twenty
-
eight
-
year
-old FTL technician from Paris, he laughed and corrected himself. “That is to say I could use some sleep. Don’t get any ideas.”

She laughed. She had dark brown eyes and while her face was not classically beautiful, she had a strong jawline and beautiful hands. Tosh had a thing for a woman’s hands. Strong and graceful hands.

“Do you really think Young is dead?” she asked.

Tosh looked at her intently and leaned back in his chair.

“I don’t know, Atanazja. I honestly doubt it.” He took the long thin tool she just handed him, attached it to The Betty and began making adjustments.

“Not many people know this, but there was an assassination attempt on Jerome Young nine years ago in Cairo.”

“Really? I never heard about that,” she said.

“Nobody did,” he said.

“An explosive device detonated inside his land cruiser. It killed everyone on board. Seven security detail, including one of his nephews. He walked away without a scratch.”

“Jesus,” she said.

“Yep. Not long after that he transferred permanently to the Jycorp orbital and dragged my floating ass to Phobos,” he said, not taking his gaze away from his work.

“I’ve never met him,” said Atanazja, looking at the ground. Tosh paused his work.

“We’ve been friends a long time. I knew his father well, unfortunately, but that incident in Cairo changed him. He has been trying to get away from Earth his whole life. If anyone can survive an exploding volcano underfoot, Jerome Young can,” he said. The engine room hushed and the pair looked over to find the captain, Carrie and Doctor Meridian approaching.

“Captain, what news?” said Tosh, turning to face the approaching trio.

“I was about to ask you the same thing, Doctor Tosh,” came a firm reply.

“FTL systems are all normal and the pressure seals are holding on deck three. We have a few more tests, but once Emerson gives us a green light we can release the FTL ring and get on our way. Have you heard any news about Jerome Young?” he asked, trying to conceal his genuine concern for his friend.

“He’ll live, Daniel,” Barrington replied. He moved closer to Tosh to converse more privately. “He lost a leg, but Brubaker is working on it. I don’t want to interrupt you, if you’re making crucial repairs. This is a flying visit.” Tosh breathed a silent sigh of relief at the news of Young’s status and turned back to The Betty.

“I will be in Doctor Tyrell’s lab for the next half hour to forty minutes, so please contact me there when Emerson returns.”

“Not a problem, Captain,” came Tosh’s reply.

He noticed how he fell into formality with Barrington a lot more easily than he had expected. He also noticed how his daughter Carrie was looking at him. There was curiosity in her eyes and something else. She looked uncomfortable. She was staring at him and not making much of a secret of it. He had known her to be a quiet scientist, but did not know anything else about her other than the fact that she was Barrington’s daughter. He drew his eyes away from her and got back to his work on the FTL systems. As they walked out of the engine room he glanced at the exit which slid open. She looked back at him one last time and made eye contact. She paused then followed her father out.

“What the hell was that?” Tosh whispered to himself.

“Sorry, Doctor?” said Atanazja. He met her eyes, which were looking oddly at him.

“Nothing,” he said. “I’m not very good with people,” he said without thinking. “Let’s run a test on FTL ring deployment,” he said.

“Okay,” she said, as he glanced back at the now shut exit. He shook off the odd feeling he had from Barrington’s daughter and took solace in knowing Young was all right. He reminded himself to kick his ass for taking stupid risks again, when he was back on his feet.
Where the hell is Emerson
? he thought.

Ty
rell’s lab

The door hissed open as the two Barringtons and Doctor Meridian entered Tyrell’s lab.

“Lights,” said Carrie. The light levels increased.

“Feels like sneaking into your parents’ house when they’ve gone away for the weekend,” said Meridian with a wry smile.

“It’s over here,” said Carrie. “I’ve compiled the data into a Holo image so that you can see a more detailed picture of what was sent back.” She moved over beside a square black platform with a clear sealed box on top of it, which was atop a cylindrical pillar. She tapped in a few commands on the flush control panel and a three dimensional holographic image emerged from the surface.

“This is a scaled down version of the imaging chamber we used to have at the observatory on Mars,” she said, continuing to enter commands into the clear panel. Her father and Doctor Meridian stood at its side and watched the rendering as it began to take shape.

“This is the main rock feature that Doctor Tyrell scanned when they first set up the equipment on the surface,” she said, pointing to the protruding angular structure.

“I don’t get it,” said Meridian. The captain looked at Carrie.

“Hang on, Chase, look at this,” she replied. She then tapped a command into the control panel and the image changed to show a large chunk of the ground blasted away from the rock face.

“These are the scans of the rock after David…” she paused, keeping her gaze fixed on the image, “After Lieutenant Chavel used his pulse rifle to remove a section of the bedrock.” Meridian’s eyes widened as the new rendering showed what lay beneath the rock. What first looked like fossilised carvings began to take on a more uniform and technological look about them. Rows and rows of what looked like piping and electrical cabling dug their way out of the ground and twisted in and out of each other in synchronous harmony.

“Looks like a heating conduit or some kind of environmental plant,” said Meridian, taking a step closer to the image.

“Look at the markings,” said Carrie, directing their attention to the subtle carvings visible throughout what now looked obviously artificial in nature. Her father shook his head.

“Sorry, Dice, I don’t get it,” he said.

“It’s the signal makers,” came a raspy voice from behind them. Carrie jumped at the sudden and unexpected presence of Doctor Tyrell, who stood at the entrance of his lab and stared at them. He took a breath of the portable breather that Brubaker had obviously given him.

“What are you doing out of the medical, Tyrone?” the captain said, frowning. Tyrell made his way over to the group.

“Stupid doctors would have you living in a medical bay if they had their way. I am perfectly capable of continuing with my work. And besides, this is far more important than the minor discomfort of nearly having your lungs melted from the inside out. You will be pleased to know that the young lieutenant is up and about and that Jerome Young’s surgery is progressing nicely,” he finished with a smile to Carrie.

“Now, as my assistant has so correctly directed your attention to the markings on this alien device, I can probably fill in some of the detail,” he said, bolstering forward.

Meridian looked at Carrie and folded her arms while taking a breath. “Please, Doctor, we would be lost without your keen insight into the matter,” she said dryly. Tyrell ignored her and began circling the image.

“Captain, these markings are the same as those found on the exterior of the structure on Phobos. The degree of radiation present on the surface and what dating we could ascertain from the soil analysis, implies that whatever this mechanical device was, be it a power plant or a toilet, we think it is just over half a million years old,” he said.

“Just before the gas pocket erupted underneath us, Mr Young made a startling discovery while examining the underside of what looked like some sort of carbon composite piping running the length of the structure. I began to make scans of it, but I do not think I was successful in their transmission before the accident. Carrie?” he said, turning to Carrie who had anticipated his request and was searching the data archives on the imager. She took the cube that she had retrieved from the medical bay and placed it on a data transfer plate. The clear surface lit up when it came into contact with the device and began relaying information directly into the imaging array. Tyrell looked on as the image began to change smoothly and focus in on one of the surfaces of the cylindrical piping.