Memoirs Of Kitty Siam Ch 37

Memoirs of Kitty Siam - Central Command Rejection.

After I assured Lieutenant Jarro that I was ok, healthy, and fully functional after the Epsilon particle assault, we made our way back to Romanov station, and just as we were lining up for our landing in the main hangar bay we received a transmission from Mars. Major Sima ordered us to return to Mars at once. I tried to make the case that I needed to stay on Romanov Station and I was surprised with Jarro when he backed me up, but the Major would not hear of it and stated that these orders came from higher up her chain of command and that there was nothing that she could do to honor our request.

When we arrived on Mars Major Sima and Colonel Chantal Torres, whom Sima introduced as Earth's liaison to the Ksatria Cahaya, greeted us. The Colonel offered her hand as was still the Earth custom and I reached out and gave it a friendly shake. I introduced myself as Kitty and had to fight back the temptation to introduce myself as Maew. For some reason that just popped into my head the moment we started the introductions.

After I introduced myself the Colonel asked me to call her Chantal, as there was no need for formalities. While I made small talk with the Colonel, Major Sima informed Lieutenant Jarro that his temporary duty assignment on Mars had come to an end and that he was to return to his squadron.

Jarro was not the only one leaving Mars that day. I too had orders to leave Mars and report to Central Command for my official welcoming to the PTB. Like the Lieutenant, I too would be taking the portal along with Colonel Torres. She would be my official sponsor in the PTB and assist me in getting sworn in, signed up and settled in.

We had a few hours before we were due to depart, so that gave me the opportunity to rummage through Galora One and stuff my meager personal possessions in my well traveled backpack. This also allowed me enough time to download the Sheba AI unit on to a data crystal that I could take with me and install on my next ship. I had a good working relationship with that AI unit and I did not want to have to start all over again with a new AI.

Another reason for taking Sheba with me was all of the personal files and logs that I had her create. Those too were downloaded onto the data crystal and once that was done, I scrubbed the Sheba AI and all the personal entries she made for me on Galora One. Who ever piloted Galora One after this would have to install a new AI because this one was all mine.

I gave my tablet a quick check and performed a data and software update before I stowed the device safely in my backpack. I double-checked all the closures on my backpack before making my way to the portal area to meet up with Colonel Torres. As I entered the portal chamber three technicians were just stepping out of the portal, and as they stepped down from the portal's platform the swirling vortex behind them dissipated and the heavy doors that protect the portal's entrance closed quickly and locked. After the three technicians left the area I looked around for the Colonel but did not see her. It was getting close to our departure time and she was nowhere to be found. I asked around but no one had seen her. I figured that she was just running late and since I did not have her on speed dial so to speak, I could not contact her by my installed data link so I resigned myself to be patient.

I thought about sitting at one of the consoles and pulling up the departure logs but that thought was cut short as Major Sima entered the chamber and informed me that there was an issue on Romanov Station that required her attention as the senior Earth representative in the area. Sima told me that I was to make the trip to Central Command on my own and that a trusted member of the PTB would meet me on the other end.

Sima escorted me up the ramp to the platform to the control panel for the portal. Since it was my first time going trough the portal she gave me a briefing on how to activate the portal and what to expect once I passed through the doorway and entered event horizon. I was pretty sure I knew how to operate the portal as I had watched many times as people came and went. She explained to me that the Mars portal had now been synchronized with central portal database maintained by Central Command and that the system would now scan my DNA before activating the portal. The control pad would also respond to key words and specific destinations by voice command or by data sent from my internal data link once the scanner had recognized my DNA signature. This was an upgrade from the Annu system that required the location to be manually keyed in by a traveler or a portal control technician.

I placed my hand on the inset rectangular pad next to the portal's sliding door and as the palm of my hand touched the pad I felt a slight tingle before the white light over the panel turned green to indicate that the scan had been complete and that my DNA scan was positive. Major Sima then asked me verbally to state my destination. Since this was my first time traveling she explained that she wanted to make sure that the system would recognize my voice pattern, so in perfect and proper Annu I stated my destination as, "Central Command." A second later I received verbal confirmation stating, "Transport Destination Approved" in Galactic Standard language.

The portal doors slid open and the portal was activated. I took a deep breath, closed my eyes then stepped in. I was told many times what to expect once I stepped into the vortex but the words did not quite accurately describe the sensation of stepping into a maelstrom in one location and being dumped unceremoniously on my pert little keister in another. Experienced travelers have perfected ways of remaining upright and fighting off the dizzying affects of the wormhole, but being a rookie at portal travel, I took a painful bounce as I landed on a dusty floor in total darkness.

As I found myself on the floor in total darkness, I realized immediately that I had taken a wrong turn somewhere and I was not in the PTB's Central Command facility. I switched my eyes to feline and could see through the darkness. I was in a control room but not the one that with lights and actual people in it. I was alone and found myself in a room that had not been used for many generations as indicated by the thick coating of dust, debris, and the skeletal remains of several large rodents.

I was not sure where I ended up but I knew that it was dark, smelly, and cold which prompted me to quickly get to my feet and change into my upgraded battle suit. I also used the wardrobe device to deploy my katana, Bowie knife, bow and quiver of arrows. Unfortunately even my upgraded wardrobe device could not store complex weapons, but given what I had available I could defend myself quite well if needed.

As I moved around the room taking note of the various consoles and such, I came across the remains of what appeared to be a male, or at least what remained of his clothing indicated that he may have been a male. His hair was long and gray and he appeared to have had a long beard, but his most interesting feature was his oblong shaped skull. I had never seen a humanoid with such a deformed skull in person, but on the wall carvings in the villages on Mars I had seen many depictions of such misshaped skulls similar to this one.

The man possessed no weapons at the time of his demise but I could see under his torso a large thick book, and near the opened book were several manual writing utensils. I moved away from the desk that the remains were slumped over and made note to come back to investigate in detail later, but for now my primary concern was finding out where I was and how I got here, but before that, I had to find a way to get the lights turned on.

I did not know if I was on a space station, in a surface bunker, or an underground complex. I knew that I had oxygen and plenty of it, but there was no circulation to the air in the room so it was obvious that if the structure that I was on was a space station or space faring vessel, the pressure seals were holding.

I made my way around the room exploring the consoles and non-functioning data displays. I made my way along the closest wall and peeked into several rooms off the main rotunda that was the central command area. Several of the rooms held spare equipment, while other rooms were offices for the various commanders and technicians that were assigned here.

I came to a door that was fitted with a pressure seal, which seemed to be a main or secondary exit from the control room. I tried to pull the door open with my bare hands but that did not work. I ran my hands along the wall near the door and felt for an access panel. Most doors of this type that I had come across in various places had an emergency manual release and this one was no different. There was a panel down near the floor on the wall to the right of the door. I used my knife to pry the cover off then reached in to pull the release lever. One hand was not enough and soon I found myself sitting on the floor with my feet pressed against the wall. I had to grip the lever with both hands, and then using my hands and legs for leverage I was able to release the lock. Back in the day when this facility was new the release lever would probably have moved with the force on one hand, but over the centuries it had become corroded due to lack of maintenance.

The sliding door opened about an inch or so allowing me to get my fingers in between the door and pull it the rest of the way open. I had to repeat this procedure many times as I made my way through door after door. The farther I got away from the control room the more direction signs I came across. The signs were written in a form of the Annu language that was very different from the variations that I had seen on Mars and on Galora. The UT was able to translate some of the signs for me but on others I had to actually think about what I was seeing and decipher the text myself.

I finally came across a direction sign that pointed toward the hanger bay, well at least I thought it say hanger bay but given my knowledge of this very ancient version of the Annu language, I could have found myself on the way to the sick bay, or perhaps a hydroponics bay. I had guessed correctly and in a few hours I found myself prying open the final door that lead me into the cavernous hangar bay.

My goal was to find a ship with a functioning reactor that I could use to supply power to the facility as we did on Mars and Romanov station, but what I found in the hangar bay put that plan to rest immediately. In the hangar bay I found a collection of ships, and ship parts and pieces that made the 17,000-year-old Galora Explorer look as if she had just came off the assembly line yesterday. A few of the smaller non space faring ships looked to be intact but the others were in various states of disassembly and some even looked as if they had had sections blasted off by weapons fire.

I looked from ship to ship in the darkness and tried to match up the ship configurations with the diagrams and technical specs that had been implanted in my PDA back on Galora but only a small single seat Tenchi class strike craft was found in the database and it was listed as a new prototype 41,762 years ago. I made my way around the hangar bay and tried to take an inventory of what was available and what might work to provide power but there was such a varied list of components available, but none seemed like they would fit together in any functional way.

I left the hanger bay and made my way though the maze of corridors until I came across a sign that read, "CENTRAL CORE." I began following the signs toward the Central Core and once again found myself forcing doors open. I was becoming quite fatigued from all of the manual labor involved in opening so many doors but finally I made my way into the Central Core area. As I entered the compartment, I could see a dim light emanating from a monstrous metallic orb in the center of the complex. The technical database told me that this was a reactor powered by an artificially induced quantum singularity.

I went though the technical data on this device and came to the conclusion that if there was a glow, there was still life in the singularity, which by my quick calculations should have lasted much longer than it appears that this station had been in existence. I mentally went over the specs page by page and came to the same conclusion that the Annu engineers did long ago that a restrained singularity had a nasty habit of turning into a black hole should it become unrestrained. For this reason the Annu abandoned this form of power for their installations approximately 30,000 years ago. Thankfully there was enough power coming from the singularity to power the constrictor field so there was no immediate threat from an unrestrained singularity. With that bit of doom and gloom in the back of my head I carefully began tracing out the wiring, piping and control panels in the area that led from the reactor.

I followed what seemed to be miles of wire inside thick protective conduits in a search for obvious damage. I did not have the proper test or scanning equipment that would have made the job easier so I had to do it the old fashioned way, and I had to do it in total darkness with only my feline night vision and sense of touch to guide me. I crawled over and under huge pipes as I followed the path of the heaviest wire bundle from the reactor. I ascended through maintenance tubes and found myself four levels above the reactor in a small control room in the Engineering section. I traced the wire bundle to a control panel and found that a large chunk of the conduit housing the main wiring harness had become damaged by what appears to have been a disruptor blast.

On the floor under the damaged area were the badly burned bones of a large rodent.

A few feet away from the rodent was a discarded sidearm and the remains of what had once been a female humanoid. Now I am not a forensic expert but it looks as if the woman had killed the rodent then tried to make repairs to the wiring bundle and the control box. Seeing that the finger bones of the right hand were badly charred, my guess is that whom ever this was, tried to perform repairs on the main wiring harness and failed to properly turn off the power.

I moved back down the conduit to a junction box and flipped the manual level to the, "OFF" position then moved back up the conduit to the damaged section. At my feet next to the dead rodent was a small toolbox and I was able to find the tools that allowed me to strip the damaged wiring and apply new insulated clamps to both ends. I checked my work and from what I remembered from my engineering classes at the academy, my patch to the wiring would hold.

Next I moved back to the junction box and moved the switch back to the "ON" position and was rewarded by a warm glow of the control panels in the room as they began to flicker to life. The main console illuminated first and read, "Main reactor on standby at 3%, initiating controlled power up process." I stood there and watched as the indicator bar below the console began to climb and as it reached 30% more of the consoles in the room came to life and began to display a representation of the power distribution grid. At 30% I felt a rush of stale air brush against my face as the air recycling system came back online. I watched as grey areas became yellow, then turned to green as the power levels reached 45%. I stood by the main console and watched the facility come back to life.

I knew that I was in the engineering section given that the controls for the reactor were located here. I made my way to the door to exit and when I neared the door it slid open on its own without manual intervention. I was sure happy to see that I would not be prying any more doors open today. I scouted around the engineering section looking for the control panel for the maintenance bots. I figured that all of the Annu facilities had them so this one should as well and I was not wrong.

I found the work station that controlled the bots and activated them in short order. I issued instructions for the bots to begin a sweep of the facility and create a prioritized list of needed repairs. I was feeling a little selfish so I ordered four of the smaller housekeeping bots to locate and make ready the commander's office and quarters. I was exhausted and needed a comfortable place to sleep and damn it, I was going to sleep in style while I figured out what my next step would be. Unfortunately the bots were not charged and I was informed that it would take at least six hours for the first squad of maintenance bots to be recharged.

I made my way back to the portal control room and found my backpack right where I had left it. The trek back to the portal room was much easier now that the doors were open and the lights were beginning to come back on. The system would have overloaded had everything come back up all at once so the CPU that ran the power distribution grid rationed the power so as to avoid an overload.

I pulled my tablet from my backpack and attempted to make a connection but for one of several reasons the device would not connect. I moved to one of the consoles in the control room that had been powered up and attempted to pull up a diagram of the facility, but the CPU in the central core was still occupied with bringing the critical systems back on line. I found that there was that was little computing power left to poll the various sensors placed around the station and display the entire diagram. I settled instead for directions to the quarters that I had selected for myself.

The Commander's quarters were located near the center of the complex, which was not far from the Central Command rotunda. The path was easy enough to memorize even for my sleep-deprived brain. I slung my backpack over my shoulder and turned to exit from the portal room and as I made my turn, my eyes landed upon an illuminated sign across the room from the portal that was written in an ancient dialect of Annu that held the answer to a question that I had yet to ask... the sign read, "Welcome to Central Command."

I paused and stared at the sign then stumbled backwards until my pert little butt came to rest against one of the desks that held the many consoles in the room. My eyes blinked occasionally but my gaze was fixed upon the sign as I thought back to my actions on Mars before I stepped through the portal. This was my first portal trip so it was easy to remember what I had done. I compared my actions with those of the countless others that I had seen come and go through the portal. It was then that I realized that everyone that I had watched leave through the portal had pressed their palm to the security pad and once their ID was confirmed by DNA, they requested their destination in the galactic standard language. I did the same as they did but instead of using galactic standard, I spoke my request in proper Annu, which caused my destination to be entered as the Annu's Central Command.

My theory was that the PTB had been installing their own programming into the portals as they were bringing them back online, but there was an error in their programming that did not completely replace the programming that the Annu had originally used when the portals were built. I knew that the PTB was still using the galactic maps that the Annu had made as the PTB did not have the resources to create new maps of the portal system. It was by necessity that they did not purge the data and software that the Annu had created.

I grew tired of thinking of all the possibilities that brought me to this place but I was confident that my conclusion was correct as to how I had come to this facility. I had a lot to think about and even more to do to get this portal back online and connected fully to the galactic grid but that would have to wait until I had some sleep. It had been days since I had a good sleep as my attempts had been interrupted by the visions that were projected into my mind as I slept. I was hoping that I was far enough away from Earth that my mind would not be invaded.