Mossy joined us. “I think we want to get both of those solar systems investigated sooner as opposed to later. We should be in a position to contact the Galactic Council easily, just based on where we are.”
“I don’t agree,” Drax said. My part of the command area was getting crowded. “If we were actually close enough, someone would have already rescued the Eknara. No one has, because we haven’t seen any activity nor have we picked up any passing chatter. Believe me, at the Core there is constant chatter—we have to mute it out, not leave channels open. Alpha Centauri and Solaris give off a tremendous amount of chatter, too, and they did so even before anyone on Earth was spacefaring.”
“Yeah, per my wife, radio waves travel,” Tito said. “They knew about us on Beta Twelve before they ever came to visit.”
True enough, I’d been told that during Operation Invasion and had never seen evidence to the contrary. “And yet, we are hearing zero right now.”
“Makes sense in regard to the uninhabited system,” Chuckie said. “But not with the Clown Consortium. They could contact us, so they have the means to broadcast and pick up signals.”
“And yet they haven’t done anything to help the Eknara, so either they didn’t hear it or they can’t actually help.”
“Maybe they’re muffled somehow?” Jerry suggested. “I mean, that sounds insane when I say it aloud, but then I remind myself that Kitty says crazy stuff all the time and she’s right more often than she’s wrong.”
“What could muffle two solar systems?” Jeff asked.
“Three if we count the uninhabited one,” Tim added.
“Something,” Chuckie said. “That’s the best we have right now. The bigger issue is the one Mossy brought up—do we try to protect these systems, and the others we’ve been to so far, right now or do we wait?”
“We have so many systems that need protection right now. I don’t know that the Council has enough people to assign. Plus, I want to be sure they’re protected, not exploited.”
“I think we also want to be sure that the Z’porrah don’t find them,” Mossy said.
“We have to focus on what we can do right now,” Reader countered firmly. “And that’s finding the Eknara and saving that solar system.”
“Arriving at the third system,” Mother said. “Once again, coming in by the planet farthest from the sun.”
“Great,” Tim said. “Start scanning the sun as soon as you can, Mother.”
“I have begun. And, we are in the right place.”
“You’ve found the Eknara?” Maybe it was on this nearest planet.
“No. I have found an extremely unstable sun.”
CHAPTER 75
“YOU’RE SURE?” Chuckie asked.
“Yes,” Mother replied. “Now that I have examined two stable ones, as well as the suns for Nazez and Cradus, along with researching the data I have on our own sun, I can feel confident that I am correct.”
“Super. How long do we have?”
“Not long. Hours, most likely, days if we’re fortunate. This star is definitely showing signs of the beginnings of a black hole.”
We all looked at each other. “Well, Kitty called that one,” Jerry said.
“Do we have enough room in the Distant Voyager to evacuate the planets?” Jeff asked Drax.
Who shook his head. “A planet, perhaps. But if they’re fully populated, it’s unlikely we could put everyone in here. We could have taken the mime and harlequin populations, for example, but no others.”
“Wheatles said the planets were teeming with life, and that seven were inhabited.” Some stuff I could remember when it mattered. There was something else I needed to remember about this sun, though, but it wasn’t coming out of my memory banks.
“We need to find where the Eknara is,” Chuckie said.
“Make it so,” Tim confirmed.
We circled this world quickly. No signs of intelligent life. Mother shared that there were ten planets. We headed to number nine. No signs of life there, either. So, it was off to number eight for us. Because we were so fast, none of this took too long. Fortunately, we weren’t so fast that we couldn’t see things.
“I’ve spotted what looks like spaceship wreckage,” Walker said. “It’s on this planet, the one we’re now nearest to.”
“Call it number eight,” I said. “Mother, log the farthest one as ten, the next as nine, this one as eight, and so on.”
“Agreed.”
“Kitty,” Jerry said, “I don’t hear any chatter, but do a hail, just in case.”
“Gotcha. Mission control, this is the Distant Voyager requesting permission to land.” We waited. “Nothing.”
“Not a surprise, they’re bronze age, per Kreaving, remember,” Chuckie said. “And if the Eknara has indeed run out of power, then they can’t reply, either.”
“Let’s get down there,” Tim said briskly. “We can at least get the crew of the Eknara to safety.”
“Check. Mother, do we need to strap everyone into crash couches?”
“No. They are harnessed and should be fine, though those here who aren’t strapped in should do so.”
Everyone just grabbed onto one of the chairs and hooked their arm through a strap. Didn’t have to tell our team twice. “Saving the more advanced crew is not enough,” Jeff said. “We need to save everyone.”
“I’m open to ideas,” Tim replied. “But so far all we have is angst, not answers.”
The guys started doing that thing where everyone’s talking and everyone’s basically saying the same things, only absolutely no positive forward motion is being achieved because no new ideas are being offered. I’d done plenty of meetings like this, both before I’d joined Centaurion and after. Hated all of them, because they achieved nothing other than making everyone upset with each other.
There was a lull as we lowered into the planet’s atmosphere. A little turbulence, but no more than any normal airplane flight. “We have to save the sun, that’s the only option.”
“How, is the question,” Tim pointed out. Accurately.
My music turned on before the guys could go back to Not Really Brainstorming. “Dream A Little Dream Of Me” by Mama Cass Elliot. My brain nudged. I’d had a dream, and I’d been told things, about this situation.
“Do we really need a soundtrack?” Jeff asked. He didn’t seem to have realized that I hadn’t touched my iPod.
“I do. It’s part of my process. And it keeps me calm. I can put in my earbuds if it’s an issue for everyone.”
The guys grumbled good-naturedly but no one really complained. “I like the music,” Tim said finally. “So, as Commander, Kitty gets to listen to whatever she wants.”
“Tim’s my favorite. So, what do we know about this sun? We know that something hit into it, per Wheatles.” And per Mephistopheles, too. The music changed to “Famous Monsters” by Saliva. “And Wheatles said that whatever hit it came via that neutron wave . . .”
“What?” Jeff asked. “I know what it means when you just trail off.”
“I think we need Wruck here, right away.”
“I’ll get him,” Mossy said. “I can go the fastest of those here who are not controlling the ship.” He flew off.
“Why do you want John up here?” Jeff asked.
“Because I need to ask questions and he’s likely the only one who can answer.”