Asteroid Vanvas: Part 5 - The Saga Continues
From the desk of Vitasta Raina
Note: This is my tribute to the Star Trek Universe, which I love.
Time: irrelevant
Chapter 6:
Note: This is my tribute to the Star Trek Universe, which I love.
Time: irrelevant
Chapter 6:
Ram had called for an emergency meeting in the decks near the warcraft hanger sometime during the night. It was a crew-call, a chance for those of us on this mission to get to know each other before the trip started. I reached there with Braff, and a young chap called Luna who had been assigned to the engines with us. Together the 3 of us along with the Telepath were responsible for running the warcraft. I looked on eagerly to see who would join us on the trip. The archaeological high priest from Asteroid 350 had come in sometime during the day on the request of the elders in the camp, and there was no doubt that he would be part of the mission. I wondered how it would be to share a bunk with the old man. I had never had any close encounters with a priest before, hell, I had never even been inside a temple where a holy prayer was being held since I was child and my parents would take me to Tel-Amar on our Mars colony. When we came into the room, four combats were already sitting around Ram, and we could hear the long strides of the Telepath as he lumbered in. He was carrying a basket of carrots, chomping on each one steadily. His red eyes still unnerved me, but looking at him eating carrots, and staring at the party in front of him with a bemused expression made him seem like a gentle giant. Braff, Luna and I made our way in and sat down next to the combats. That's when we noticed a group of people standing in a huddle in the dark corner of the room.
One of the men came towards us, and I recognized him as Prof Pergue, our resident expert in deep space radio-waves and delta-gamma frequencies. He was one of the first people in the camp who isolated the message from the First Men. I guess I was pleased to have him come with us on the journey, it was only natural. He spoke with a somewhat shaky voice and explained something to Ram. I could not catch the whole conversation, but he seemed a bit disturbed. Later, a couple of scientists joined the group, all experts in different fields of space telemetries. But I gathered that Prof. Pergue wouldn't be on the mission with us. Then it was settled, the warcraft crew including the Telepath, the four combats with Ram, and 3 scientists would be on the mission. Then we waited for the priest, for what seemed like the better part of an hour, but he never came. Meanwhile I introduced myself to the combats. They seemed so friendly one would forget they could kill a man with their bare hands in a matter of seconds. The scientists weren't as forthcoming as the combats, but they were pleasant enough. Everyone seemed a bit wary of the Telepath, but he just sat there eating his carrots, not saying a word to anyone, but carefully observing us all. Shortly after waiting a while, the Telepath left, and soon we dispersed as well. Maybe the priest wouldn't join us on the mission after all. Ram seemed a bit pissed off, and it was natural, he didn't even want to take the priest along in the first place, and now we had spent almost 2 hours waiting for the priest to brief him about the warcraft and what could be expected in the space on the mission, something no priest could intuitively know, no matter how wise he is, and he doesn't even show up. If he wasn't coming along, someone could have told Ram. But these internal political matters and power struggles, it was best not to get involved with them, at least for me.
Luna and I sat up for almost the entire night talking about what we could expect on the mission, and the warcraft itself. He knew all the ins and outs of the craft, but was a bit apprehensive about taking it off into outer space. We should have had a dry run, and I do agree, but for some reason, ever since the message from the first men was received and the news of the message spread around the camps, there has been this push for us to go out and explore it. I still couldn't fathom how people were so sure of this being a holy message, and the absurdity of it all, no one seemed to question that, but here we were now, on the eve of this quest. And I was too small a person to question the validity of it all. We were to leave at 0500, and it was already quite late. We decided to get a little sleep before the adventure began.
*
We gathered near the Warcraft at 0500 hours to begin the loading process. We needed to carry ammunition and supplies. The place was abuzz with activity as a lot of people from the camp came up to lend a hand and to bid us a good journey. Some even came with food for the Telepath who seemed to be enjoying the attention. Ram was briefing the combats when Sita came over, and they both walked to a distance to talk about something alone. I could tell that Sita was very upset, but I didn't want to intrude. Braff and me started examining the outer hull where the fire flies had started eating into the metal, when suddenly we heard a commotion. A procession was making it's way towards the warcraft, and immediately Ram ran up and stood in front of the warcraft door. The priest had finally decided to show up and join us, but Ram was not having any of it. I could see his point of view, though I knew he was going to lose the argument because the Telepath greeted the priest very warmly, and almost gathered him up in his arms for a hug. I didn't even know they knew each other. They met like old friends. The priest was older than I expected with bright, shining wise old eyes, and he was very pale, as though he had never been outside in the sun in his life. He walked with a small limp in his left leg, but seemed so very in command of everyone. Ram tried talking to some of the elders about the sudden inclusion of the priest without any formal session or working knowledge of the warcraft, but they didn't pay him any mind, and slowly, the priest made his way into the warcraft with the Telepath in tow. The rest of us continued our inspection, and soon, the entire boarding party for the mission was inside and ready to get started. The telepath made his way into the central chamber ready to pilot the mission, and Braff, Luna and I went down into the lower decks and strapped in for take off. Soon, we would be out in orbit around the asteroid, and from there, into outer space.
*
"You know, back in the 21st Century, there was talk among the scientific community of upgrading the status of Hygeia into a dwarf planet in the solar system."
I looked up at Braff, as he continued, "just like Ceres. In some ancient earth cultures, it was the symbol of the holistic healing, named after the Greek Goddess."
"How do you know all this?" I asked, even as Braff sputtered more facts about the asteroid.
"I was reading."
"Any mention of it in the scriptures relating to the First Men? I would be more interested in that!"
"No, there is no specific mention, but they found some ruins on Ceres, so it could be possible, they just haven't found anything there yet."
Suddenly, there was a bit of turbulence, and we shifted in our seats. Space Flight was usually calm and getting hit by turbulence meant only one thing, there were ships near by. And in the case of a cloaked warship, they could be only a few hundred meters away.
Suddenly we saw the red light flickering, a signal that we needed to report to the bridge. We unbuckled and headed up to where Ram was pacing as two scientists were working on the radio. "They're close. We're picking up their relay." Dr. Franz said to Ram while gesturing to us to set up the console platting. Luna picked up the Gamma Radio Scope while Braff and I pulled out the magnetic table. Like a makeshift war-room in the centre of the bridge, we all stood around the scientist adjusting the frequencies on the radioscope. From what I gathered, we had flown very close into the flight path of an oncoming Agency Shuttle, which was a worrying thing, because either the Telepath did this on purpose, or he had just lost control of the helm, but none of us, absolutely none of us were willing to go down to the cockpit and check. But whatever, the error, the Telepath had corrected the trajectory at the last minute, and the shockwaves of the shuttle in warp-speed is what caused the turbulence. But now, it seemed that we were going in the general same direction, and it was a good opportunity to get some recon.
Braff set up a remote monitoring capsule and gained access to the Shuttle's mainframe computer. While he was downloading the database, we were listening in to the conversation between the Shuttle and its Agency Ship. They were orbiting close to Hygeia, and we were in no condition to have an all-out combat with the vessel if they detected us. We needed to drop the cloak for landing, and we were in thick soup.
From what we could gather, the Shuttle was picking up some neutrinos from the asteroid belt while the Ship awaited orders. The War was Over. We had lost. There was nothing left of the resistance forces and the Agency had commandeered the remaining Warships, though uselessly because no Telepath would pilot it for them, no matter what the consequence. While Braff set up the information he had gathered for the ship, we stood there in deadly silence. Everything we knew, everything, was gone. The Agency in the past decade had taken over the cities and spaces, the colonies, the space-stations, and everywhere they had imposed their restrictions and regulations. Those who resisted and joined the war, like us, were so long gone and buried deep in our trenches that we became inconsequential. Other who remained became the Agency's New Citizens, forced and regimented, and now, after years of Agency rule, probably forgetting that there was another way, that freedom was one a natural and integral part of a person's identity, not a handout delivered by the Agency with a booklet on what you were free to do. Obviously, they erased all traces of the First Men. But why, why were they here, guarding an empty outpost in the Asteroid Belt where nothing could really threaten them?
And then we realised something, the messages that we had received, well the Agency had picked them up as well. Now it was just a game of cat and mouse. They, orbiting so close to Hygeia would spot us the instant we tried to land, and we knew there was no real way of surviving that attack. We needed a new plan, and fast.
We stood in the confines of the bridge, the scientist, Ram and the Warship crew, mulling over our course of action. Ram said something on the lines of letting the combats loose onto their ships by inter-ship teleportation, but we knew it was a suicide mission, not that they cared. Dr. Franz said the they could try and triangulate a laser beam to sabotage the Agency Ship's engine, and we were trying to assess within ourselves exactly how much damage the warcraft could handle, when suddenly, we all froze. It was the Telepath, and he was relaying a message. "The Priest will handle it, go to him."
As usual, the Telepath's screeching through our brains hurt so much, streams of tears were involuntarily falling down our cheeks, and we waiting for the agonising seconds when it would cease. The Priest? Almost all of us had forgotten his presence on the craft, and we were left pondering how the old man could possibly aid in the highly strategic and technical mission. He was there to decipher the archaeological codes, transcribe a few messages from that may emanate from whatever we found on Hygeia, maybe give it a framework within the existing knowledge systems known about the First Men, but combat with an Agency Ship? We were confused, but not wanting to risk upsetting the Telepath, Ram and I made our way to the Priest's Chambers. While we were still walking down to corridor towards his room, there was another rumble of turbulence. We feared detection by the shuttle, but it was a false alarm. The shuttle it seems had altered its course and gone back towards the inner the asteroid belt. Ram told me that he would talk to the Priest, even though I realised that with his open contempt for the old man, this was possibly a very bad idea, but he was persistent.
We reached the chambers and pressed the alert buzzer. For a moment, there was no reaction or movement from within the chambers. Finally, the door was opened by Dr. Dremon, a scientist attached with our group, but not one who had been very friendly with us during the meet-and-greet session. He gestured for us to be quiet and indicated that the Priest was in deep meditation. The mounting anger on Ram's face was very evident at this point, and I asked the doctor if we should come back in a while, but he indicated that we needed to wait.
We stood there quietly for a few moments gazing at the scene. The Priest was levitating over his holy shrug kept on the floor of his somewhat austere chamber. He was thin, wizened and wearing a loose robe. His beard was grey and about a foot long, and his long hair was tied in a bun over this head. While we studied his floating figure, we felt a strange sensation gripping our minds, making us light-headed, and I looked up at Ram. We shivered, and then realised that the Priest was standing up, glaring at us. Before we could say anything, he gestured to Dr. Dremon who picked up a scroll and a star chart from the table he was standing next to, and the Priest spoke to us in a strange, sing-song melodious and raspy voice that reminded me of the old jazz singers on Mars Station that I used to visit with my parents.
"There is another way," he said, shaking his head and gesturing to the doctor who brought up the star chart for our inspection. The Priest moved closer and continued, "In the ancient scrolls, there is a mention of an ancient doorway, here", he said pointing to a section of the Asteroid Belt near Vesta, "we must go there to gain entry to the sacred shrine at Hygeia."
"What?", Ram began, but the Priest cut him off.
"Find it in your heart to believe my son, find it in your heart to love." The Priest then placed his hands on Ram's face as he stood there motionless. I stood back in surprise at the lack of protest from Ram, but once the Priest removed his palms, Ram stood there as though in a trance.
I followed him quietly back to the bridge, and saw as he told Braff to head in the coordinates of Vesta. Before I could protest, there was that dizzying transmission from the Telepath again. This time, it short and it was brief. We were heading towards the empty region, where so many, many countless space mission had been since the 21st century. There was nothing there. I tried talking to Ram, but he just smiled at me and told me to have faith. What had come over him! Was I the only rational being left on the warcraft? Or was I the only lone fool who had not seen the light yet. Fine, if this was the way they wanted to proceed, I wouldn't stop them. It was a waste of time, but at least we would be out of the Agency Ship's radar. That was something. Maybe after we finished this absurd trip, the Agency ship would have left the area and we could proceed with landing on Hygeia as it was initially planned. I was walking back down to the decks when Ram told me to stay on the bridge and assist with the Gamma Radio Scope. Whatever!
I stood around with the scientist as he adjusted his instruments. I had never seen such a blatant disregard of logic in favour of the devotion these people felt for the First Men. In my heart of hearts I knew that I would rejoice triumphantly when this whole hair-brained "search for the gateway" would fall apart. Anyway, we reached the empty section in less than 20 earth minutes, and then the warcraft came to a halt. "Aha!", I said aloud, and suddenly felt conscious as everyone on the bridge glared at me. I stood there biding my time, when the Priest came down to the bridge from the chambers with Dr. Dremon. "Is it ready?", he asked about the Gamma Radio, and while I looked on a bit surprised, the Priest started sending a strange scrambled signal into the empty space.
"It's written in the old scrolls," Braff whispered into my ears, "that's the spell to open the gateway."
I stood there astonished, but then I realised what was happening, and at that time, I didn't know whether the scientists and doctors, the Priest and Ram and Braff were joking about faith, or if they really didn't know what was going on.
The Priest was creating an Einstein-Rosen bridge, and in front of the warcraft, in the empty vacuum of space, a wormhole was opening up.
"You know, back in the 21st Century, there was talk among the scientific community of upgrading the status of Hygeia into a dwarf planet in the solar system."
I looked up at Braff, as he continued, "just like Ceres. In some ancient earth cultures, it was the symbol of the holistic healing, named after the Greek Goddess."
"How do you know all this?" I asked, even as Braff sputtered more facts about the asteroid.
"I was reading."
"Any mention of it in the scriptures relating to the First Men? I would be more interested in that!"
"No, there is no specific mention, but they found some ruins on Ceres, so it could be possible, they just haven't found anything there yet."
Suddenly, there was a bit of turbulence, and we shifted in our seats. Space Flight was usually calm and getting hit by turbulence meant only one thing, there were ships near by. And in the case of a cloaked warship, they could be only a few hundred meters away.
Suddenly we saw the red light flickering, a signal that we needed to report to the bridge. We unbuckled and headed up to where Ram was pacing as two scientists were working on the radio. "They're close. We're picking up their relay." Dr. Franz said to Ram while gesturing to us to set up the console platting. Luna picked up the Gamma Radio Scope while Braff and I pulled out the magnetic table. Like a makeshift war-room in the centre of the bridge, we all stood around the scientist adjusting the frequencies on the radioscope. From what I gathered, we had flown very close into the flight path of an oncoming Agency Shuttle, which was a worrying thing, because either the Telepath did this on purpose, or he had just lost control of the helm, but none of us, absolutely none of us were willing to go down to the cockpit and check. But whatever, the error, the Telepath had corrected the trajectory at the last minute, and the shockwaves of the shuttle in warp-speed is what caused the turbulence. But now, it seemed that we were going in the general same direction, and it was a good opportunity to get some recon.
Braff set up a remote monitoring capsule and gained access to the Shuttle's mainframe computer. While he was downloading the database, we were listening in to the conversation between the Shuttle and its Agency Ship. They were orbiting close to Hygeia, and we were in no condition to have an all-out combat with the vessel if they detected us. We needed to drop the cloak for landing, and we were in thick soup.
From what we could gather, the Shuttle was picking up some neutrinos from the asteroid belt while the Ship awaited orders. The War was Over. We had lost. There was nothing left of the resistance forces and the Agency had commandeered the remaining Warships, though uselessly because no Telepath would pilot it for them, no matter what the consequence. While Braff set up the information he had gathered for the ship, we stood there in deadly silence. Everything we knew, everything, was gone. The Agency in the past decade had taken over the cities and spaces, the colonies, the space-stations, and everywhere they had imposed their restrictions and regulations. Those who resisted and joined the war, like us, were so long gone and buried deep in our trenches that we became inconsequential. Other who remained became the Agency's New Citizens, forced and regimented, and now, after years of Agency rule, probably forgetting that there was another way, that freedom was one a natural and integral part of a person's identity, not a handout delivered by the Agency with a booklet on what you were free to do. Obviously, they erased all traces of the First Men. But why, why were they here, guarding an empty outpost in the Asteroid Belt where nothing could really threaten them?
And then we realised something, the messages that we had received, well the Agency had picked them up as well. Now it was just a game of cat and mouse. They, orbiting so close to Hygeia would spot us the instant we tried to land, and we knew there was no real way of surviving that attack. We needed a new plan, and fast.
We stood in the confines of the bridge, the scientist, Ram and the Warship crew, mulling over our course of action. Ram said something on the lines of letting the combats loose onto their ships by inter-ship teleportation, but we knew it was a suicide mission, not that they cared. Dr. Franz said the they could try and triangulate a laser beam to sabotage the Agency Ship's engine, and we were trying to assess within ourselves exactly how much damage the warcraft could handle, when suddenly, we all froze. It was the Telepath, and he was relaying a message. "The Priest will handle it, go to him."
As usual, the Telepath's screeching through our brains hurt so much, streams of tears were involuntarily falling down our cheeks, and we waiting for the agonising seconds when it would cease. The Priest? Almost all of us had forgotten his presence on the craft, and we were left pondering how the old man could possibly aid in the highly strategic and technical mission. He was there to decipher the archaeological codes, transcribe a few messages from that may emanate from whatever we found on Hygeia, maybe give it a framework within the existing knowledge systems known about the First Men, but combat with an Agency Ship? We were confused, but not wanting to risk upsetting the Telepath, Ram and I made our way to the Priest's Chambers. While we were still walking down to corridor towards his room, there was another rumble of turbulence. We feared detection by the shuttle, but it was a false alarm. The shuttle it seems had altered its course and gone back towards the inner the asteroid belt. Ram told me that he would talk to the Priest, even though I realised that with his open contempt for the old man, this was possibly a very bad idea, but he was persistent.
We reached the chambers and pressed the alert buzzer. For a moment, there was no reaction or movement from within the chambers. Finally, the door was opened by Dr. Dremon, a scientist attached with our group, but not one who had been very friendly with us during the meet-and-greet session. He gestured for us to be quiet and indicated that the Priest was in deep meditation. The mounting anger on Ram's face was very evident at this point, and I asked the doctor if we should come back in a while, but he indicated that we needed to wait.
We stood there quietly for a few moments gazing at the scene. The Priest was levitating over his holy shrug kept on the floor of his somewhat austere chamber. He was thin, wizened and wearing a loose robe. His beard was grey and about a foot long, and his long hair was tied in a bun over this head. While we studied his floating figure, we felt a strange sensation gripping our minds, making us light-headed, and I looked up at Ram. We shivered, and then realised that the Priest was standing up, glaring at us. Before we could say anything, he gestured to Dr. Dremon who picked up a scroll and a star chart from the table he was standing next to, and the Priest spoke to us in a strange, sing-song melodious and raspy voice that reminded me of the old jazz singers on Mars Station that I used to visit with my parents.
"There is another way," he said, shaking his head and gesturing to the doctor who brought up the star chart for our inspection. The Priest moved closer and continued, "In the ancient scrolls, there is a mention of an ancient doorway, here", he said pointing to a section of the Asteroid Belt near Vesta, "we must go there to gain entry to the sacred shrine at Hygeia."
"What?", Ram began, but the Priest cut him off.
"Find it in your heart to believe my son, find it in your heart to love." The Priest then placed his hands on Ram's face as he stood there motionless. I stood back in surprise at the lack of protest from Ram, but once the Priest removed his palms, Ram stood there as though in a trance.
I followed him quietly back to the bridge, and saw as he told Braff to head in the coordinates of Vesta. Before I could protest, there was that dizzying transmission from the Telepath again. This time, it short and it was brief. We were heading towards the empty region, where so many, many countless space mission had been since the 21st century. There was nothing there. I tried talking to Ram, but he just smiled at me and told me to have faith. What had come over him! Was I the only rational being left on the warcraft? Or was I the only lone fool who had not seen the light yet. Fine, if this was the way they wanted to proceed, I wouldn't stop them. It was a waste of time, but at least we would be out of the Agency Ship's radar. That was something. Maybe after we finished this absurd trip, the Agency ship would have left the area and we could proceed with landing on Hygeia as it was initially planned. I was walking back down to the decks when Ram told me to stay on the bridge and assist with the Gamma Radio Scope. Whatever!
I stood around with the scientist as he adjusted his instruments. I had never seen such a blatant disregard of logic in favour of the devotion these people felt for the First Men. In my heart of hearts I knew that I would rejoice triumphantly when this whole hair-brained "search for the gateway" would fall apart. Anyway, we reached the empty section in less than 20 earth minutes, and then the warcraft came to a halt. "Aha!", I said aloud, and suddenly felt conscious as everyone on the bridge glared at me. I stood there biding my time, when the Priest came down to the bridge from the chambers with Dr. Dremon. "Is it ready?", he asked about the Gamma Radio, and while I looked on a bit surprised, the Priest started sending a strange scrambled signal into the empty space.
"It's written in the old scrolls," Braff whispered into my ears, "that's the spell to open the gateway."
I stood there astonished, but then I realised what was happening, and at that time, I didn't know whether the scientists and doctors, the Priest and Ram and Braff were joking about faith, or if they really didn't know what was going on.
The Priest was creating an Einstein-Rosen bridge, and in front of the warcraft, in the empty vacuum of space, a wormhole was opening up.
 |
| The Secret Gateway opened up. Image Source: Crossing Zebras. * |
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