Solar Warden by Jakob Waechter (best authors to read TXT) 📕

because of the distance. But I’m checking now,” Kelsey replied. She was now wearing a combat suite which was the suit of her choice as she had most experience with it. The space suits had some advantage in safety but also would slow down the work speed. All the lab scientists were using the space suits, now.

 

Fisher and the bridge crew were now in the combat bridge and their suits. It was a section in the middle of the ship. It was like the offices and other installations a good covered area which was much better protected against hull breaches and weapons impact. On the bridge of the tower it would be enough to penetrate the glass. Certainly they had an armor plate which could cover the glass, but it was nothing compared to the multilayer plating that was now between them and the vacuum of the space. Still it was unknown with what the capital ship would shoot. Fisher hoped to find an option not to try it out. He was now discussing how they would engage the enemy fighters with less as possible losses.

Meanwhile opened Samuel the door again. They had now the full control back. At least that was what Kelsey verified.

“Are we down to the laser again?” Ryan wanted to know.

“Probably, I can send an opening command there. But I fear they can overwrite it and then plug in the cable if they hadn’t done it already,” Samuel replied.

“Then check this and get the laser in position, I guess we have further two doors to go at least.” Ryan went into the control room, he wanted to get something done. Who knows how long they had to wait, Ryan thought.

“The door does not respond. They have already cut the connection. So we will drill now,” Samuel confirmed.

“They are still in the hall behind. Wait. Drone signal lost,” Ryan switched to the drone before the door, then he saw the connection lost icon on his display. “Seems they are jamming, again. I check the outside.”

Ryan went out of the control room for the fortified position where SW-1 and 4 were.

“Status?” Ryan asked.

“Position secured, but we lost communication,” came the reply from a nearby sniper.

“Watch the door, something might happen.” Ryan was a bit worried. With Newman and SW-3 up there it was not much protection. Sure for the next hour they should be safe but something was odd. He went to Caine which was at the control room door.

“Caine go up and check the situation up there. They should retreat into the cave for safety and Newman should triangulate the jammer,” Ryan ordered.

“I’m on my way,” Caine jumped on the nearby bike and went out of the hall.

 

Newman and the others were nearly finishes with the repairs as the jamming began.

“Better we move into the cave, I get the scanner and check where this is coming from,” Newman opened the trunk of the bike and picked the scanner out. It was clearly coming from the cave. He closed the trunk, jumped on the bike and drove to Yamada.

Yamada’s team did also a triangulation with their tablets. It was not as precise as Newman’s scanner, but enough to determine it was close to the location of they closed door.

“It’s down at the hallway out of the big hall to the closed door,” Yamada said as Newman arrived. Newman scanned again.

“More where the aliens are hiding,” Newman added after his second scan.

“That could be a problem to deactivate it,” Yamada was worried.

Then Caine appeared. “I need a status report, a triangulation of the jammer and stay in the cave to be more secure.”

“Here seems all clear. But we cannot communicate with our fighter. I pinpointed the jammer to the hall where the aliens are hiding, more exactly at the left room there,” Newman informed. Then the jamming stopped.

Yamada checked at once for the drones. They were all there.

“The Grays are gone. They jammed out of the hall behind the door or the left room there,” Yamada reported Ryan.

“Good, get me Newman down. He should help to speed this up here,” Ryan replied.

Yamada informed Newman, which ordered then after a talk with Ryan, the other two scientists to finish the work on the combat drone. With his bike he followed then Caine down.

The laser drill was already in place. Newman made with Samuel some fine adjustments, after they scanned where to go. Finally, they went back to the control room and started the drill.

“So what now?” Newman asked.

“We should figure out which of this communication boxes leads up to the ship we captured. So we could have a connection to the Icarus while they jam us,” Samuel suggested.

“Good idea. You inform Kelsey, while I start the preparations,” Newman went out to the bike to get some stuff.

 

Ryan was with Watkins now. “How is it going?”

“We initiated the wake up process in this chamber. He is getting now more and more temperature. At this rate I assume he wakes up in 10 minutes,” Watkins replied.

“What’s this stuff he is wearing?” Ryan looked at it. It had on some points metallic buttons.

“That seems to be a senor suit, probably measuring temperature on different locations or even more. We did not figure out, how it is transferring the data, yet.”

“I send you Newman if he has the time for it. Call me when he is awake. I will now report to the Icarus,” Ryan went out and back to the control room.

“How can we prevent that they jam us again,” Ryan asked as he entered the control room.

“We have only a solution for the Icarus communication. That should work when we found the right communication device. I think we should have it in 10 minutes. So we have a secure line to this control room. For the jammer we have to open the door, find it and disable it. But that does not mean they haven’t another one behind the next door,” Newman replied.

Samuel was further testing the unplugged communication devices, one by one.

“They have now their reinforcements in space. Jammed us shortly probably for testing and moved the Grays away unseen. When they do it again they could try to ambush us somehow from both sides. The Icarus cannot warn us and might have trouble to prevent them from landing troops. This means that new connection could be our joker,” Ryan said. He was worried that they could be trapped down there.

“We also could delay our capture by blowing down rocks. But that would only work if we know support from the outside will come. With the unbreakable connection to the Icarus we know at least what is coming. Maybe we get the combat drones inside the cave and even the fighter. That would mean we could give them the needed orders or just hide them here,” Newman suggested.

“Good idea.” Ryan went up for a nearfield communication with the fighter.

 

He woke up and looked around. There were strange creatures to see. He could not recognize them. His face showed the unknown situation. He started to speak in his common language.

Watkins could not understand it. She reached her hand and helped him up.

“We are from Earth. Most of us speak only English,” she also didn’t know what to say as response.

The awoken further said something.

Freeman and Jones were also there.

“I try something out,” Watkins went back to the tablet and wrote something on it. Then translated it into the Mesopotamian symbols hoping it would be correct enough. She showed it to the awoken. He seemed now to read, then nodded.

“Great, it seems he can read his. Now we check if he can write.” She wrote again on her tablet, then gave it to him.

He nodded again. Then tried to figure out how to write with the tablet. It took a while then Watkins translated it.

“Well, he has a name, I don’t know how to speak. At least the system can’t translate it. He is asking what he should do. I ask him what languages he can speak,” Watkins wrote again.

It took a while again.

“He speaks only the language of the masters,” Watkins informed after she read the reply.

“So you have awoken one of our experiments.” The awoken made now a different face and was speaking English.

“What are you doing with them?” Watkins asked.

“Does it matter. That is our business,” he replied.

“Sure. You are experimenting with our DNA. Abducted this one from our planet against his will.”

“Not this one. The one we abducted lives now with us. He has a longer lifespan then you and an honorable rank in our society. This is just an experiment that used some of his DNA. It is similar like the Gray you met.”

“Inform Ryan, again. He should be here by now.” Watkins said to the others. Freeman made a gesture in Barnes direction to do it as he watched now the awoken not to make any dangerous move. With the suits he probably could do not much. Still it was possible to somehow grab a gun. The awoken stood up.

“So what are this bodies? Your avatar to move around wherever you want,” Watkins tried to get information.

“That is just a function that is useful. No they are just optimized for doing some kind of jobs. We have our simple worker they need no interface. Then our explorers which are suited for space travels. You call them the Grays. They have a lot of functions, but also limits and here with that human looking ones we try some stuff on this planet. But you will learn all this when you joined our society.”

“But we don’t want that,” Watkins replied.

“What options do you have when your ship is gone. You stayed too long and have now to pay the prize.”

“We will resist,” Watkins replied.

“Resistance is futile. Sure you can bore you to death or try the funny rebel stuff. But on this planet you can damage only our equipment that can be easily replaced.”

Ryan was now joining them.

The awoken continued, “So the best way to not harm yourself is drop your guns. Let your ship land on this planet and cooperate.”

“So what exactly do you want from us?” Watkins asked.

“That’s obvious. Your DNA, your behavior, some analysis to pinpoint the sequences. You all can get here a chance to advance in our society, improve yourself how you like it and a life better as you can imagine.”

“Oh and for that we give you all our lives in your custody. Let you analyze our technologies and forget you did things to us against our will and try to destroy our ship,” Ryan said.

“Well, you also can wait till it is done. Curiosity is a fine thing. You stayed too long but also got the chance to get more. On your planet someone behaves like you would be just killed.” The awoken looked a bit around and stepped out of the chamber.

“It was only a reaction to your actions. Call your ships back and let us leave. Then this facility stays as it is,” Ryan responded.

“You are free to do what you want. We are talk about the conditions after your surrender.” The face changed again.

“We do not surrender,” Ryan said.

“My master does not want to speak with you anymore,” the awoken spoke in a bit different voice and pace.

“Then sit down over there,” Ryan replied.

He walked to the direction Ryan pointed and sat down on a chair like structure on the wall.

“He can speak English now. That is amazing despite our situation,” Watkins said.

“Yes. Freeman, guard him. I don’t want him to walk around. Watkins check him out what he is exactly. Is this now an organic robot or a living being temporary controlled by a device?” Ryan ordered.

“It is a living being with DNA. The question is can it think or decide for its own,” Watkins replied.

“I need more details. Is he controlled or does he have a free will like us. I mean the difference between a machine or a human. They seemed to be tools for the