The earthling nodded.
“It could come in very handy.”
“By the way, the Tarian refugees are asking for help from all closely located alien ships now,” Lora added quietly.
After a few seconds all they could hear were some rustling and swishing sounds. Everybody simultaneously looked at Paul, awaiting further instruction.
“We’re going to…” confidently started the captain.
“Sorry captain, there’s some movement!” reported Chris.
The crew members tightly surrounded the holographic projector.
“One of the refugees’ ships manoeuvred and is trying to leave the fire zone,” Paul pointed at the green dot moving to the edge of the projection.
“It’s not being followed,” noticed Oleg. “The cruiser is holding the others at gunpoint, while the fighter planes are yet to arrive in order to cut off the fugitive’s path.”
“The cruiser is ready to fire!” added Chris. He was now at the holographic projectors in front of the captain’s seat and on one of them he showed a detailed picture of the border ship with the embattled artillery
From that moment on, the events started evolving as quick as a flash. The ship with the refugees turned out to be cumbersome and was unable to avoid the line of fire. The first series of volleys hit it directly, depriving the spacecraft of its, though weak, protective field. As a result of the second series, the back engine was damaged.
“They won’t go far with this kind of damage!” sighed Stan.
Then again someone’s speech was heard despite the interference.
“The passenger ship detected our shuttle and is moving in our direction,” translated Lora. “Now it’s us they’re asking for help.”
“They would surely be able to reach Gron and make an emergency landing there,” nodded the mechanic.
“Within the framework of the active agreement between ‘Solar Flotilla’ and Taria’s government,” quickly commented Paul, “we can help their citizens in case of an emergency. Even in times of battle, this can’t be considered an intervention into their domestic policies.”
The crew members nodded in accordance.
“So we are going to just stay there and watch how they fire at the helpless ship until it crashes right next to us?!” said Derek shocked.
“Yes, because we are bound by this agreement,” Paul sat in the captain’s chair continuing to closely monitor the scanners. “Judging by its trajectory, it’ll land next to us. Chris, activate the protective field and get ready to manoeuvre. There could be the threat of a collision. Oleg, you are responsible for the defence arms. Stan, calculate the possibility of using the teleport ray for transporting the injured onboard. Mary, get the spacesuits ready, they could be useful.”
“What should we do?” Derek looked questioningly at the captain.
“Fasten your belts for now,” he answered calmly. “But the night is young.”
“The object is on our right!” reported Chris.
The earthling and Lora sat in the vacant chairs, staring intently through the panoramic glass into the darkness surrounding the shuttle.
“The speed is too high, it’s going to be a rough landing!”
Soon after these words were uttered, Derek noticed a ship approaching them at speed; moving in jerks, losing and gaining height. When it was too close to the surface, it touched the spiky moon rocks which cut into its cover before bursting in all the directions.
“The scanners show that only one of the brake motors switched on! The ship’s going to turn around now!” reported Chris.
However, within seconds; not only did it turn, but it broke into two parts. One of the pieces of debris flew far ahead, disappearing from view of the onlookers and exploded as shown on one of the scanners. The bigger part bumped into several cliffs before halting one and a half kilometres away from the shuttle.
“Scan the debris for the presence of survivors,” commanded Paul.
Stan shook his head gloomily.
“Fifty-two life forms, but I can’t say anything about their physiological state. By the way, before firing the scanner had shown three hundred and seven Tarians.”
“So, our help could be useful,” summarized Paul. “Stan, what’s the situation with the teleport? Can we transport them one by one?”
“No, can’t do that. The damaged ship equipment could cause a lot of interference. If anything goes wrong, we’ll get the Tarians in pieces. But if we stick small beacons on the survivors, then every object’s signal will become stronger and the risk of harm or injury will be considerably decreased.”
“Is there a risk of explosion?”
“Not at the moment, but the engines of the ship are badly impaired; the beginning of a chain reaction is only a matter of time,” replied Oleg. “I think we have about an hour.”
“This mission isn’t directly connected with the interests of ‘Solar Flotilla’: that’s why I can’t give orders to anyone.” Paul looked at his crew.
“We’re coming, captain,” Mary gave a nudge to Oleg.
“Coming,” he nodded in agreement and, walking fast, they left the bridge.
“I can also help,” Lora said, ready to follow them.
“Great! Stan and Chris will stay with me onboard,” decided the captain.
“I want to go,” suddenly said Derek, loudly and decisively.
Paul raised his eyebrow in surprise, while Lora who was already heading to the spacesuit chamber stopped hesitantly.
“A walk in a spacesuit, despite all its advantages, is quite a tiring thing…”
“But I feel great. Besides, Paul said that he can’t order…”
“I can’t order you to go…” specified the captain, “But if your actions put other crew members in danger, it’s a different matter.”
“I can handle it,” confidently said Derek and pointed at the hologram, “Besides, we have little time to evacuate all the injured. Another pair of hands really could do.”
“He’s right,” agreed Chris, “Fighter planes are taking off from Taria. I don’t think they’ll ignore a ship that crashed on the moon.”
“The injured are all around the ship,” added Stan, “Teleporting our rescue team there will save some time, but they’ll have to move around the inside the spacecraft on their own, which can be very difficult.”
“Alright, put on your spacesuits and wait for departure at the teleport cabin.”
The rescue mission preparation took less than 10 minutes. Getting inside the Tarian spaceship, Lora and Derek looked around. A wide corridor, where they had been teleported by Stan, partially collapsed with clusters of bare wires sparkling, broken pipes and pieces of twisted metal. The flat bio scanner monitor attached to Lora’s spacesuit displayed the ship scanning data. Thus, receiving the directions, they headed to the place with several bio signals. From time to time, the piles of debris became a serious obstacle and moving ahead was badly hampered. Making her way through the blockage, Lora lost her step causing her leg to slip from a pipe, wet due to steam coming out of it. The girl screamed, lost her balance and rolled down on the floor with a crash.
“Hey, are you ok?” the earthling didn’t manage to catch her on time, but immediately rushed down to help her.
“It seems so,” she winced with the pain in her knee.
“Shall we move on?” he was watching her closely.
With the corner of her eye, the girl assessed her physical state indicators that flashed on the spacesuit virtual display right in front of her eyes and nodded affirmatively. Then they continued the way to their destination.
“What do the Tarians look like?” asked Derek, carefully following Lora.
“You’ll see for yourself,” the girl answered. “Here we are! Can you help me move this bulkhead.
Applying a great deal of effort, the young people managed to free the entrance to one of the passenger compartments where, according to the scan results, a few survivors were. The place was filled with thick steam and, judging by the squishing sound under their feet, there was a lot of water on the floor.
Suddenly, from Lora’s side, Derek heard a hoarse rattling sound resembling the kind of speech that they heard during the broadcast from the Tarian ship.
“What’s this?” the young man looked around.
“I just asked in Tarian if there is anyone there” answered the girl.
“How can you make sounds like that?” the young man was perplexed.
“Thanks to another element of the UCD, the personal speech synthesizer,” explained Lora. “The thing is that human vocal chords are not always able to reproduce the speech of alien races. I’m sure you have seen this gadget before. It’s a pendant that all the Titanium citizens wear around their necks. It works as a speech device, receiving signals directly from the brain and wording my thoughts towards it.”
“I need one!”
“Of course, but for now activate the interpreter, installed in the spacesuit.”
“We are the rescuers from the ‘Solar Flotilla’ shuttle, our crew is ready to help you!” Switching on the device, Derek heard a perfectly clear translation of the rattling created by Lora’s synthesizer. “Come out, don’t be afraid,” she added and within seconds they were surrounded by five short humanoids.
Derek had never seen the Tarians before and was now staring with great interest at the creatures that had appeared in the dimly lit compartment. In physique, they looked like short stocky men who, instead of skin, had small red scales. Their short strong limbs had long nails at their tips, while the heads and partially the shoulders and back were covered with a leathery carapace that resembled a helmet. From under this armour, yellow snake-like eyes observed the humans who had just arrived. The young man unwillingly smiled, watching the aliens’ clumsy movements while the rising water was up to their waists now.
“You were asking for help,” the girl broke the long silence.
“Yes, the captain of this ship tried to get in touch…” started one of the survivors, “But we don’t know where he is now…”
“Our friends will try to find him. For now we can offer to evacuate you to our shuttle. The atmosphere created in one of its compartments is the same as the air composition on Taria. We’ll take you to Titanium like this.”
“To Titanium?” the Tarians looked at each other. “But your Council had refused to get involved…”
“We’re not getting involved,” explained Lora, “We’re just offering help to a spacecraft that had crashed. This doesn’t violate the terms and conditions between our races.”
The refugees nodded in agreement.
“That’s great!” smiled the girl, “I’m going to stick a transmitter onto every one of you, and it will initiate your teleportation into the compartment with a suitable atmosphere.”
By the time Chris’s agitated voice was on air again, Lora and Derek had already helped a dozen Tarians they had found in different compartments.
“Guys, finish with it! The fighter ships are already near. Paul is talking to the unit commander, who had been sent to Gron after the spacecraft that was shot down. Their ships will be here in less than twenty minutes. They have orders to destroy the remains of the ship.”
Lora looked at her watch.
“Message received, we’re coming back!”
“You’ll have to climb one deck up so that the beacon signal becomes stronger,” added Stan.
“The scanner has detected three more life forms on the level above us,” noted Derek and pointed Lora in the direction of the correct compartment.
“We didn’t follow this route when we came here. There could be piles of debris,” answered Lora. “Let’s follow the more certain way.”
“But the Tarians will die then!” insisted the earthling. “We’re obliged to save them!”
The girl sighed deeply and peered at the persistently flashing red light at the corner of the virtual screen. She didn’t want to tell Derek about her injury she had got due to the fall. Besides, regardless of the leg trauma, the chances of saving several other refugees were miniscule. At the same time, the risk of dying under the fire of the Tarian fighter planes far away from the place where Stan could teleport them was quite high.
“We’re not going there, Derek,” Lora concluded calmly. “We did everything we could. It’s time to go back.”
“The sooner, the better,” Captain’s voice could be heard on air. “The fighters are seventeen minutes away, and we also need time to fly as far as possible before the shooting. Come back, this is an order!”
“We can’t leave like this!” insisted Derek, “I can make it!”
“Now it’s not only your life you’re endangering,” suddenly firmly stated the girl, “Your efforts are senseless, if the captain doesn’t risk the shuttle and everyone else on board.”
“She’s right,” the captain interfered into their argument, “We’d have to stay very close to the debris in order to teleport you and the other three. And, Lora, what are your bio indicators?”
“Everything’s fine,” Lora tried to calm him down.
“It wasn’t just a minor injury, was it?” guessed Derek.
“There’s no point discussing it now, the main thing is to get out of here.”
On arriving at the shuttle, Lora was immediately transferred into the medical compartment. By the time Derek took off the spacesuit and entered the bridge, the ship had already left Taria’s satellite.
“You did a good job,” said the captain noticing him come. “How’s Lora?”
“Mary said that she’d be fine,” answered Derek. “What about the Tarian fighter planes?”
“A few seconds ago they started heavy shooting at the remains of the ship.”
“What happened to those the cruiser was aiming at?
“They remained there. Not one of them took the risk any more. I think, sooner or later they’ll either land on Taria or die.”
“Can’t we help them in some way?”
“We have no right to interfere in the domestic conflict, but have the order to return back to Titanium. Today ‘Solar Flotilla’ will leave Taria’s orbit. The Council made this decision less than half an hour ago.”
Derek didn’t say anything. For a while not one word was uttered on the bridge.
“Captain, the border cruiser started shooting at the passenger ships,” Chris broke the silence. “We’re outside the affected area, but several ships with refugees followed by the fighter planes are moving in our direction. They are seeking asylum on Titanium. Shall I turn on the loudspeaker?”
The captain nodded. Voices and loud sounds resembling explosions were transmitted on air. Derek was very grateful to Mary for the speaker with synchronized translation. Now he could understand the aliens’ language.
“We have no authority to provide asylum for you,” answered Paul calmly, using his personal speech synthesizer. “We can’t interfere…” Suddenly the connection was lost.
“This ship has just been destroyed,” quietly reported Chris.
Paul shook his head, signs of sincere regret could be read on his face.
“Another one is coming too close. The fighters shooting at it could hit us by accident.”
“Get me their captain.”
“Ready! The connection is established!”
“I am Paul Stones, the captain of ‘Solar Flotilla’s’ shuttle. Your actions threaten the safety of our spacecraft. I am asking you to stop fire!”
“Your ship’s well protected and will not be damaged even if the passenger transport explodes!” answered the Tarian through interference.
Derek approached the porthole – now he could clearly see what was happening outside with his own eyes. The transport with the refugees was awkwardly manoeuvring and trying to stay close to the shuttle in an attempt to prevent the fighters from shooting at them.
“What does our protective field have to do with anything?” said the captain indignantly. “You have no right to put my crew’s life at risk!”
“In this case, go faster so that the ship of the delinquents can’t use you as a shield!”
“We have some cargo onboard that’s slowing us down” confidently lied the captain, which came as a total surprise to the earthling.