Page 124 - The Chronicles Ser2 (6-10)

shift rotation pattern resumed on the Coms monitoring. The data streams suggested that the pilots
had both lost consciousness around halfway through their journey. The monitoring teams were
waiting for them to regain consciousness and report in.
“Judging from these readings; the two of them blacked-out within two minutes of each other. The
equipment carried on recording all the data including from the exterior sensors” Lorna was telling
Hart at the review meeting. The others were going over technical data in more depth.
“Has anyone figured out when the Gardonna acquired her damage?” Hart asked.
“The hulk has been drifting since the incident, which occurred around twenty years ago. From trace
materials retrieved from the outer hull; it happened deeper into The Veil. The logs suggest it was
due to an abortive attempt to follow a Behemoth back through a rift” Lennie replied Hendrickson
sent a copy of the Archivists findings to the main screen and highlighted an inscription scratched into
a console
“We have been unable to translate these symbols; they are in an unknown script. But temporal
signatures suggest it was inscribed sometime after the ship was abandoned. Furthermore; there is a
DNA trace that points to an, as yet, unknown race that managed to send the craft back to this sector
of The veil from the region of the incident Lennie mentioned” he added, and stood down and
awaited questions. At first no one spoke. Then Jonas looked up from the Neurological report
“There is no logical reason for the pilots to black-out as far as these readings tell us. Stress and other
levels are high… but within expected parameters. The Mechanoid pilot suffered what I can only
describe as some form of impressed overload of his positronic circuits. In other words he seems to
have had a brainstorm triggered from an exterior force?” he said looking puzzled
“Biological data would suggest the human pilot suffered a similar intrusion. It’s as if someone or
something tried to telepathically communicate but seriously over did the strength and power of the
thought message. I wish I’d thought to have translator bands fitted to the pilots, and then maybe we
would have a copy of that message” Mortimer added.
“The engineering data sent back shows no sign that there should have been such a rapid shift in
speed. Thankfully the braking system cut in automatically when they emerged on the other side. The
actual jump in speed is phenomenal. It might explain a few things” Jock Hasselblad the Chief
Engineer reported “The really odd thing is the time signature of each of the burst transmissions is off
from Central time index by a negative figure… forty days?” he added shaking his head.

“Hyperspace can do strange things to time. Remember the first experiments in Hyperspace travel?
Early ships didn’t have the heavy shielding we use today and some crews actually ended up days or
weeks younger when they exited to normal space. We call that temporal drift today and we have
compensators for it; back then they called it The Fountain of Youth effect” Hart said in response.
Jock thought for a moment then laughed and said
“Oh; yes! I remember now. One of the first test pilots on the Sirius run got stuck in a fold in a
Hyperspace tract and came out as a fourteen year old boy. His wife got a heck of a shock. His name
was Hart too…” he stopped when he saw the Captains face realising he’d made a terrible faux pa.

A Coms tech entered and handed the Captain a pad. She read the message and excused
herself leaving to the Command deck and also leaving the others bewildered. She came back a few
moments later looking pale and asked them to follow her. On the Bridge main viewer was a visual of
the current state of the rift. It had increased in size and a faint glow could be discerned in the distant
depth of the rift.
“What are the readings now Ensign?” Hart asked one of the Science station crew
“Fifty per cent higher and rising Ma’am” he replied. Jason walked in from the Coms Deck
“Whatever that is; it’s kicking out some strange signals high up in the sub-space bands. It’s a regular;
repeated signal that sounds eerily like Whale song?” The young man said puzzled.
“Have we a visual Number one?” Hart asked the Bridge officer
“It’s distorted; but yes, on main viewer now” came his reply. The image of the glow had brightened.
As the object moved closer to the boundary of the rift it became clear what it was.