“How is it you don’t know?” the voice on the other end asked, sounding like he thought he’d just realized that instead of finding the A-Team he’d landed the Keystone Kops.
“It’s been a long day. Also, as a suggestion, don’t be snippy with the people who are trying to help you, it’s bad form. Look, what’s your name?”
“And the name of your home planet and its location,” Chuckie added quickly. “We need something to work with.”
“Fine. My name is Wheatles Kreaving, on the space vessel Eknara, from the planet Ignotforsta.”
“Um, excuse me. I’m not sure that our translator is giving us this right. Your name is Wheatles Kreaving? From the planet Ignotforsta? And your ship is named the Eknara?” The ship’s name wasn’t my issue. The other names were. The Inner Hyena wanted to break free in the worst way.
“Yes, you pronounced everything perfectly.”
“Oh. Um. Good.” Truly, the galaxy was a place of wonder and bizarre names. Then again, maybe Kitty sounded weird to someone named Wheatles.
“Our home planet’s coordinates are three-zero-two by eight-seven-seven by five-four-nine.”
We all looked at Chuckie and Wruck. Who both shook their heads. “What does your planet consider zero?” Chuckie asked. “And we need to know which number equals time.”
“The Galactic Core, and we don’t have a time measurement. But it doesn’t matter because we’re not there. We were hit by a neutron wave—”
“A what?” Chuckie interrupted.
“A neutron wave. It’s created when a star dies.”
We all looked at Wruck. “It’s another term for what Earth scientists call a supernova remnant,” he said. “It’s more accurate term. And there are different kinds of these waves.” He looked like he was thinking about something, but he didn’t say anything else.
“It’s a big old galaxy, isn’t it? So, Wheatles, what star died?” Gave it no more than five minutes before I was calling this guy Wheaties. At least in my mind. Probably aloud, too.
“No idea. The waves radiate out. We might not have had a problem, but we were near a dark nebula which blocked the wave’s readings and weren’t able to adjust our course in time. We were hit and sent tumbling. We have no idea where we are now because of that. Our ship is damaged, as well, so we can’t leave.”
“Are you in an uninhabited area?” Chuckie asked.
“No, we’re on a planet, which is one of several. All of them are inhabited. The inhabitants aren’t the problem. They might even be able to help us fix our ship—in about a thousand years or so. They’re all in a primitive state.” More garbled word. “Stone age for you. We think.”
“Are they using fire and tools?” Chuckie asked. “Metals?”
“Yes, doing metalwork. They have fire, weapons and shelters, clothing that’s more than skins or leaves.”
“Bronze Age, more likely, then, at least in terms of Earth’s progression.” Chuckie shook his head. “Yeah, they’re unlikely to be able to help, though.”
“Okay, so, still doesn’t sound like a reason to be freaking out.” Said because Kreaving sounded really stressed. Wheaties Craving. Considered this nickname and decided I was not going to share that with anyone anytime soon, since I didn’t need the derision. Plus, it was unlikely that we had Wheaties on board. At least until we rescued this guy.
“Yeah, that wouldn’t be,” Kreaving agreed. “However, there’s something wrong with their sun. Our surveying and scientific equipment is working and we’ve determined what’s wrong.”
“And that is?” Chuckie asked.
“Their sun was hit with something. It came along with us, via the neutron wave. And now their sun is unstable and looks ready to go nova. In a very short time from now. Not only are we here, but there are seven inhabited planets that we can determine are teeming with life, and none of that life is more advanced than that of the planet we’re on. We’re all going to die, and soon, unless someone can help us.”
“Transmission is starting to weaken,” Mother said.
“Wheatles, give us everything you have about where you are,” I said urgently. “And do it fast. We have no idea where we’re headed either, but I promise you, we will find you. And we’ll find you before it’s too late.”
“We think we’re still in the area of the outer arm where our planet is, but we’re not sure—the damage to our ship means that we can’t be sure how far we traveled.” He faded out.
“Wheatles! Keep trying!”
“We were going to examine a pulsar that appears to have several planets orbiting it.” His voice was fainter. “We were trying to discover if those planets had life or not.”
“Do you know how long the pulses last or how long in between pulses?” Chuckie asked.
“Yes,” Kreaving said. But it was hard to hear him due to static. “. . . weeks . . . help . . .”
The line went dead. We were all quiet. Broke the silence. “I don’t care what else we supposedly have to do. We are finding that solar system and we’re saving it. Period. I don’t know how, but we’re not letting Wheatles, his crew, or all the bronze-and possibly stone-age people in that system die.”
“We all agree, Kitty,” Jeff said. “To the point that I’ve had to put my blocks up. Mother, do we have any way of knowing where we were during the transmission?”
“Somewhat. Once we know where we will stop, I can compare that location to the Eagle Nebula and format a reasonable determination based on when we gained and then lost the transmission.”
“From what our science knows,” Chuckie said, “if the supernova remnant still has power to damage and shove a spaceship this far off course, then the star couldn’t have gone nova all that long ago. Less than a thousand years for certain. That should help with the search.”
“Sure,” Tim said. “Because there are only, what, a billion stars in our galaxy?”
“More,” Wruck said. “But the time from the point when the star exploded that caused the Eknara to go off course is less than a thousand years. Much less. If my suspicions are proved correct, the star died about three hundred years ago.”
“Oh, I have a bad feeling about this.” I did. Because I was pretty sure I knew where Wruck was going.
He nodded. “You should. I believe that the Eknara was hit by a neutron wave from the star that Mephistopheles destroyed.”
CHAPTER 49
LET THAT SIT ON the air for a good long bit. “You know, I want to say that you’re kidding or make some other shocked exclamations, but I’m not surprised at all because, in the grand scheme of things, that totally and completely figures.”
“Does that mean that we’re close to Earth?” Reader asked.
Wruck shook his head. “The neutron waves will have traveled far by now. But we should be able to get a decent determination based on the location of the star and the expectation of how powerful the wave is based on time and how it affected the Eknara.”
“Combined with what I should be able to determine once we stop,” Mother added, “we should be able to pinpoint a general area of the galaxy. We may have to visit several systems, however, in order to find the correct one.”