Читать книгу Bieber's Finger - Craig Nybo - Страница 20

Chapter 12

Winkle led a tour of the Earth vessel. They walked a series of long corridors, past perfectly symmetrical entryways, all metal, plastic, and fabricated glass. Chi and the others gawked at the gaudiness of the vessel. The creatures of planet Earth must be rich beyond the grandest dreams of even the most wealthy Ice Beetle in order to amass the metal it took to create such a magnificent ship.

They stopped at the end of a long hallway. A key pad similar to the one on the outside of the hull was seated in the wall next to two large, sliding doors. Winkle turned to the others, a knowing smirk traced on his face. How he’d longed to share knowledge of the ship. He had proposed full disclosure to Nichang on a few occasions, only to be denied for the sake of protecting the colony from its own greed for metal.

“My friends,” Winkle said, spreading two of his rakes expressively. Red light from fixtures mounted in the ceiling highlighted the edges of his form. “I now take you into the heart of the Earth vessel, the USS Arlington. The room in which we are about to enter is like the brain of this vessel. It is also the sum of my life’s studies. I have learned their language and their ways. Now I share them with you.”

Winkle punched a code into the keypad. The door panels clunked and slid into the walls, revealing a room full of buttons, controls, lights, meters, indicators, and any number of other foreign devices. As the Ice Beetles entered the bridge of the USS Arlington, their eyes flicked around, taking in every detail, every nuance, every part of the room’s structure and function.

Goorn focused on a gigantic bay window at the front of the bridge. She looked out into the jungle. Her world appeared so primitive through the thick glass. A frigg traced its way across the sky, its skin wings dipping and spreading. It glided lazily on the breeze, searching for food in the treetops, perhaps eggs, perhaps hatchlings on which to dine. As Goorn watched the frigg make its way across the sky, she realized that she was living out the last few moments of her life on Hull. Everything was about to change. She didn’t know whether to cry or to embrace the future.

“What’s this?” Stig said from the back of the room. He pointed at one of the control stations. A dried out corpse sat at a panel of buttons. An orange, fine woven canvas covered the creature. The mummified beast had only four major appendages and no rakes. Its head--Stig assumed the jutting orb on top of the creature was its head--dangled at the end of a lanky sleeve of flesh, completely open to predator attack.

“That is the remains of an Earth creature,” Winkle said. “Don’t be disturbed by it. There are many of them on board. They are harmless.”

Stig reached out with one of his rakes and poked at the corpse’s head. It lulled to the side and its mouth fell open. “Inferior bio-mechanical makeup,” Stig said.

“It creeps me out,” said Goorn. “I don’t like it.”

“I want them off the ship,” Chi said.

Winkle turned to Chi. “And why is that? I find them interesting.”

“Death in any form dampens our spiritual connection with Tyche the God of Ice.” Chi turned to Stig and Gnasher. “Search for a suitable place to bury them. When you find a dignified spot, Goorn and I will be along to help.”

“Can’t we just dump them in the jungle,” Gnasher asked.

“They are creatures of Tyche the God of Ice just like us. They deserve our respect. We will bury them.”

“We’ll need access to the rest of the ship,” Gnasher said. “To find them and take them to the jungle.”

“I will spend the rest of the afternoon training you on how to get around and function in this vessel. It is powered by a long-term decaying energy source. If we are to try and get this ship off the ground, I am going to need days of uninterrupted research.”

“You will have it,” Chi said.

“Very good, now lets continue the grand tour,” Winkle said.

Winkle directed the small company around the ship, demonstrating how the hydraulic airlocks worked, disclosing codes he had cracked to get into more secure areas. He showed them the med unit, a room with beds and equipment created for the biology of earth creatures. He showed them an entertainment room, fitted with chairs not suited for Ice Beetle anatomy. An enormous screen hung at the front of the room. Winkle remarked that if he could gain access to the entertainment database, this room might aid them in understanding some of the customs of Earth creatures. He led them to a cafeteria, still pristine, washed with antiseptics, swept and kept immaculate. Not even the expected micro-layer of dust speckled the long, white tables. Gnasher wondered what Earth food tasted like as he looked at the long tables. Were they meat eaters? Worse yet, were Earth creatures insect eaters? He shuttered at the thought.

After giving the others an understanding of the ship’s layout and a rudimentary knowledge of how the engines functioned, Winkle left them to their orders and went to the bridge to access the ships power source and to see if there was even a slight chance he might be able to get the vessel out of Hull’s atmosphere. In theory he knew how to navigate the vessel. But all too often, a large gap existed between theory and reality.