The Split Skies (The Possessor Wars, Book 4): The Possessor Wars, Book 4 Read online

  “Our homemade rockets sent us a little off course again,” Kent answered as he stepped to Engineering’s main computer console. “We’re headed toward the gas giant. The ship is going to pass through a dangerous gravitational stress point. It probably won’t survive. It’s too bad. If it could just stay together, the computer shows that it would be caught in orbit around a habitable jungle planet that is a moon of the gas giant. We’ll have to leave the ship in the shuttle pods.”

  “What?” Jeff queried, struggling to understand through the haze that clouded his mind. “What’s a gravitational whatsits?”

  Kent answered, “Stress point. A gravitational stress point. This gas giant is about the size of Jupiter but it has lots more moons going around it. Some of them are as big as the Earth. Their gravitational fields overlap. Sometimes so many of them overlap that they create stress points. If this ship passes through one without a shield, it could tear itself apart. We’re headed toward one now, so we have to get off.”

  “So we’ll take the shuttles down to the jungle moon?” Jeff asked.

  Shaking his head, Kent said again, “No. The small engines of the shuttle pods won’t be able to slow us down for quite a ways. We’ll slingshot around the gas giant and land on the next planet in. It’s a desert world about the size of Mars, but it has a breathable atmosphere. Come on Jeff. Bring Arvix. We have to start loading the shuttle pod with everything we’ll need to survive.”

  Jeff followed his father to cargo bay 49. They began gathering supplies from the containers as fast as they could. After a while, the others arrived and joined in. Soon they had a large pile on the cargo bay floor.

  The ship trembled. Apprehensively, Jeff looked to his father.

  “We’re already caught in the gas giant’s gravity field,” Kent stated warily. “It’s starting to change the ship’s course. It’ll loop completely around the planet once and then hit the stress point on the next orbit. That’s when it’ll probably fall apart. We’ve got to get the pods loaded and get off the ship before that happens.”

  Jeff and Arvix began carrying supplies to the shuttle pods that were clustered together along the sides of the Ellsworth. Kent arrived and opened the double doors to a pod. Pointing inside he said, “Jeff, you put that stuff in this pod. That’s the one you’re going to fly. I’ll fly this one across from it. Dirk can pilot the one docked behind mine.”

  Stowing the supplies in the back of the pod, Jeff wondered how they could fit everything they needed into such small ships.

  “Dad,” Jeff asked when the others couldn’t hear, “can these little pods really make the trip to the next planet in?”

  Kent eyed him keenly. “I won’t lie to you son. It’ll take us a few weeks and will be a dangerous trip. We’re moving fast, and the pods have small engines. But I think they can slow us down enough to land on that desert planet.”

  “You think?” Jeff queried. Kent shrugged and nodded. Silently, Jeff returned to work. Together with his father, his stepbrother, Dirk, his stepmother, Porsche, and his stepsisters, Danae and Denise, Jeff moved supplies into the pods while the ship increased its shaking and shuddering. They worked for hours until at last, the pods were loaded.

  Kent informed them, “We’ve got about another hour before we swing around the gas giant. We’ll launch just as the ship starts its next orbit.”

  As the next hour passed, the ship shuddered and staggered drunkenly from time to time. At last, Kent said, “Ok, we’re almost ready to go. Jeff run back to Engineering and release the docking clamps while I get the pods fully powered up. Then get back here as fast as you can so we can cast off.”

  Jeff nodded and ran to Engineering. Going to the main console, Jeff released the docking clamps. The pods were now free to leave.

  As Jeff sprinted to the shuttle pod, the Ellsworth heaved itself violently. A massive section of the ceiling collapsed down the corridor in front of Jeff, dropping tons of rubble nearly in his face. He heard his father yelling for him. As he made his way forward, Jeff saw Kent climbing over the debris of the fallen ceiling section. “Arvix!” Kent screamed. “Get Jeff and bring him here!”

  Arvix surged forward in a blur of motion. With a great leap, the robot landed next to Jeff as he clamored over some large pipes that had fallen. The ship quaked again and another huge section of the ceiling fell directly on Jeff and Arvix.

  4

  Jeff awoke and wished he hadn’t. Everything hurt. He opened his eyes. That seemed like a mistake too. He was on the rubble-strewn floor of the corridor. A large section of the fallen ceiling covered him. But he was safe, more or less. He was inside a faint, yellow, glowing bubble of some kind. Arvix lay next to him, pinned by wreckage.

  The ship quavered. Jeff reached out to touch the barrier that protected him. “What is this?” he asked aloud fearfully. “Where did it come from?”

  Then he remembered what Eden said in his dream. “You will have the power to shield yourself and others from danger,” she told him.

  Jeff wasn’t sure he wanted to believe his dream was real, but he was being protected by a shield of some kind. “But how do I get out of here?”

  As if in answer to his question, the ship staggered again. The artificial gravity field shut off. “Yes!” Jeff exclaimed. The shield around him disappeared but the debris didn’t fall on him because there was no gravity. He pushed the rubble off of himself and quickly made his way to where the shuttle pods were docked. He was appalled to find that two of them were gone.

  “They left!” he shouted to the empty ship. “How could they leave?”

  But then Jeff realized that they must have believed he was dead. “People don’t usually survive when they get tons of ceiling parts dropped on them,” Jeff reminded himself.

  “What do I do now?” he muttered. Abruptly, Jeff found himself standing on the red, sandy beach again. Eden and Genesis were there beside him.

  “Jeff,” Eden began urgently, “It’s too late for you to try to get off the Ellsworth. It’s about to hit the gravitational stress point. You’ve used your shield once. Now you must go to Engineering and use it again. The shield projector won’t work. But you can extend your shield through the projector’s lens. It will put a shield around the entire ship and you’ll be safe. Hurry, Jeff.”

  His surroundings juddered again and instantly Jeff found himself back on the Ellsworth. Scratching his head, Jeff told himself, “You’d think she could find a better way to communicate than jerking me around like that.”

  Pulling himself along, Jeff floated his way to Engineering. He looked wildly around for anything that might be a shield projector. “Over here,” he heard Eden’s whispered voice say. Turning in the direction of her voice, Jeff yelled, “Stop that! You’re creeping me out!”

  Jeff moved to a large machine at the rear of main Engineering. He waited for instruction. When none came he yelled, “Ok, I’m sorry. Go ahead and talk to me.” But there was no answer. ‘Did I break the connection?’ he thought. ‘How do I get it back?’

  Jeff had no real experience in shield-related technologies. Thinking furiously, Jeff asked himself, “What part of this looks like a projection lens? Could it be this big flat thing at the front? Or the big round thing at the back?” As the ship shuddered continuously, Jeff realized he’d only have one chance to get this right. Vaguely, he remembered seeing an old 3V show where the crew of a spaceship was trying to repair their shield before their ship was eaten by a giant space monster of some kind. It seemed to him that the shield generator in the show was big and round. But he couldn’t clearly remember.

  “I’ll try the round thing,” he told himself.

  Moving to the back of the apparatus, Jeff put his hands on the sphere, shut his eyes, and focused his mind. Nothing happened except the ship increased its shaking. Jeff kept at it. Sweating now with concentration, Jeff could feel a tingling in his forehead. It grew to a pulsating throb and spread down to his shoulders, then to his hands.

  Jeff opened his eyes. Hi
s hands were glowing bright yellow. The glow spread across the surface of the crystal-like sphere and trickled down into it. Jeff felt an explosion of energy surge through him and he knew that his shield now surrounded the ship.

  The ship entered the gravitational stress point with a sickening lurch. Clutching the sphere, Jeff hung on with all his might as the ship flailed around him. After an eternity of desperate concentration, the shaking subsided and the ship was once again peaceful. Exhausted, Jeff passed out, limply floating above the shield projector lens.

  When he came to, Jeff pushed his way though the floating rubble to get to the main console. Using the ship’s external cameras, he took a look around. Below the Ellsworth hung a gorgeous, blue-green world. Its atmosphere was flecked with puffy white clouds. It beckoned as if welcoming him.

  Jeff checked the Ellsworth’s orbit and found that it was stable. He let himself smile. The smile left his face as he thought of how he’d projected an energy shield to save the ship. He rubbed his forehead.

  “Eden? Are you there?” Jeff called. Silence. Only silence.

  “I can’t stay on the ship long,” he said. “I need to find a place on that planet to make a home. At least until I can fix things on this ship.”

  Jeff made his way back to where the remaining shuttle pods were docked. “Arvix,” he called to the robot as it floated among the debris. “Yes Master Jeff?” it responded.

  “Are you broken?”

  “Apart from a few dents, I am fully operational.”

  Jeff pulled himself to the docking ports. There were still two small shuttle pods docked to the ship. “I’ll need food,” he mumbled thoughtfully. But he remembered that the disaster that had stranded the Ellsworth had triggered most of the internal pressure doors to slam shut. It was next to impossible to go through the ship’s main corridor to get to any modules where he’d find food.

  “Arvix,” he ordered, “go to the crew module and bring back as much food as you can carry. You remember how to pull yourself along the outside of the ship in order to get there, don’t you? We did it before when we rescued my family.”

  “Of course, Master Jeff. I shall retrieve the food and be back directly.” The robot left, exiting the ship and pulling itself hand over hand along the spacecraft’s exterior.

  The external scanners on the Engineering module were still working. Jeff spent the next few hours scanning the planet below. The computer indicated that the planet was on a very wide orbit around the gargantuan gas giant. Being so far from the planet it orbited, it was in an area of gravitational stability.

  ‘Good,’ Jeff reassured himself. ‘That means it won’t be passing through any of those gravitational stress point things.’

  The surface of the habitable world had only one large continent that spanned about a third of the globe. There were numerous islands, large and small, scattered across the luminous planet’s expansive ocean.

  Most of the continent’s land mass lay blanketed in tropical vegetation. Jeff discovered a lush forest at the foot of a mountain range. He focused the scanners on a long, meandering river. When he found a wide field along the river between the mountains and the forest, he told himself, “I’ll make a home there.”

  Arvix arrived about that time with a large supply of food. Jeff examined what the robot had brought back. “This should keep me fed for a few months,” he said. “I can get all the water I need down there.”

  Knowing that he needed a lot of different types of supplies, Jeff went to the computer and tried to pull up the ship’s manifest, which listed all the cargo the freighter carried. Engineering’s computers were online, but the manifest was in the main computer and that wasn’t working.

  “Arvix,” Jeff called, as he grabbed a portable power generator.

  “Yes, Master Jeff?”

  “When I get into my spacesuit, I want you to take me to the crew module at the front of the ship.”

  “Yes, Master Jeff.”

  Quickly climbing into his suit, which he had stored in Engineering before going into cryostasis, Jeff hung onto Arvix as the robot pulled itself hand-over-hand along the network of beams that formed the outer structure of the ship. About an hour and a half later, Jeff and Arvix were floating inside the crew module. Jeff made his way to Central Computing with Arvix following behind.

  After connecting the portable generator into the processor matrix of Central Computing’s main data storage node, Jeff quickly downloaded the ship’s manifest into his suit’s computer. As an afterthought, he also downloaded all of the data on the star system he was in. Because the main computer had automatically performed a long-range scan when the ship emerged from hyperspace into normal space, it had more data than the Engineering computer.

  When he finished, Jeff looked around. His eyes rested on the workstation where he had spent so many hours working on the Living Ship project. He recalled how satisfied he had been as he developed the software for molecular-sized robots, called nanobots, that could build entire ships directly out of raw materials.

  A sadness slipped over him. ‘That was probably the best time of my life. I got along with Dad. I was with good people. I worked at a job I liked. I did good work. But now it’s all gone. So is everyone I ever knew.’

  Hopelessness swept over Jeff like a torrent. Floating limply, Jeff wondered how he could possibly find any other human beings.

  An idea flashed through his mind. “If I’m ever going to get home,” he said, “I’ll need a ship. And the Living Ship project is almost done.”

  Moving to the workstation, Jeff quickly disconnected it from the wall. “Arvix,” he commanded, “Can you get this workstation back to Engineering?”

  “Yes, Master Jeff. However, I will not be able to take both you and it at the same time.”

  “Ok, then take this to Engineering and come back for me.”

  “Yes, Master Jeff.” The robot grabbed the workstation and heaved it out toward the airlock. In spite of the zero gravity, the workstation was bulky. Still, Arvix was able to manage.

  While Arvix was gone, Jeff went to the kitchen to pack some more food. He grabbed some clothes for himself out of the ship’s supply and packed them into a container.

  Jeff paused as an idea occurred to him. He pulled his way to the living quarters of Chief Connors, the ship’s Chief Engineer. “Aha,” Jeff said as he rifled through the Chief’s closet. He pulled a datacrown out of one of the drawers. “I need as much information as I can get if I’m going to get through this.”

  Opening his helmet and placing the datacrown on his head, Jeff instantly felt woozy as it adjusted itself to him. His vision blurred and the room spun. After a moment, everything returned to normal. That was it.

  “I wonder how you make it work,” Jeff asked himself. Immediately he knew exactly how it operated. The datacrown fed the information directly into his brain. “Oh,” Jeff said. “All I have to do is want information and the datacrown provides the data if it can.”

  By the time Arvix got back, Jeff was ready to go. The robot pulled Jeff and the containers of supplies back to Engineering. From there, he went forward to where the two remaining shuttle pods were docked. The pod he and his dad had packed was still there. It was loaded with tools, a portable fusion generator, and some other necessities. His guitar was also there, along with the rest of his belongings. Jeff and Arvix stowed the extra supplies and the workstation in the pod.

  “Arvix, you sit in the copilot’s seat,” Jeff instructed. “There’s no room for you anywhere else.”

  “Yes, Master Jeff.”

  The docking clamps on his pod were already released. “It’s a wonder this thing didn’t get torn off the side of the ship.” Jeff said as he and Arvix got seated. “But I guess the magnetic seals on the airlock held it in place.” Arvix looked at him questioningly, but didn’t say anything.

  Closing the airlock, Jeff released the magnetic seals and gently nudged away from the Ellsworth. After plotting his course, he gradually descended toward the
planet. Entering the atmosphere, Jeff tried to ease the heavily loaded shuttle downward gradually. But he soon found that his descent angle was too steep. The shuttle quickly picked up speed and lurched violently. He worked hurriedly to slow himself down, but nothing helped.

  An alarm blared and the panel in front of Jeff turned into a blaze of red lights. His shuttle pod lurched to the side. If Jeff hadn’t been strapped into his seat, he would have been tossed against the wall. Frantically, Jeff’s hands flew over the controls as he tried to slow the careening pod’s descent. It didn’t work; the pod wobbled, heaved, and then flipped upside down.

  Working the shuttle pod’s controls like a maniac, Jeff managed to get its nose pointed straight down. Its speed was increasing dangerously. The hull shuddered sickeningly. Jeff hastily blinked the sweat from his eyes and continued his efforts. Slowly, he managed to pull the pod into the correct flight position and got control of it.

  “Hull temperature at maximum,” the pod’s computer told him calmly. The air outside the pod’s front window glowed a bright orange. The lush jungle landscape far below was barely visible through the blanket of fire that increasingly surrounded the small spacecraft.

  Jeff was worried. If he didn’t get the pod slowed down, it would burn up in the atmosphere. Drenched in sweat, he applied a gentle reverse thrust. The pod tossed and bounced violently, flailing Jeff around like a rag doll. But gradually, very gradually, he got his speed under control. When Jeff was finally going a reasonable speed, he found he was far beyond the spot he was aiming at. It took him more than three hours to get back to his destination. But at last, the shuttle hung over the meadow with its engines humming softly.

  Jeff surveyed the scene below. Everything looked tranquil, but he had no idea what kind of animal life might be down there. He decided to land on a long ledge about halfway up a nearby cliff. As he lowered the pod, he saw that the side of the cliff was covered with holes. All at once, a huge mass of bug-like creatures about the size of large dogs exploded from the holes in panic. They scurried up the sheer rock wall to the top of the cliff. There the creatures sat, peering down at him. When Jeff emerged from the shuttle, the creatures barked at him in voices that could only be described as canine.