Master of Shadows, Chapter 8: From The Ashes

Jack and Lily Rossman stepped into the ruined hulk of the Raptor. The missing hull plates allowed large amounts of light to enter the ship’s third floor. What the light revealed, however, was not encouraging. The rooms immediately next to the hull were trashed. Much of the floor was missing, making walking treacherous as a single slip could send one plummeting down to the second floor. The walls were bent out of shape and the rooms were empty. It was a depressing sight.

The couple managed to pick their way through the debris and shattered metal and make it into the inner hallway. There was still some natural light that managed to enter this part of the ship, but much of the area was cloaked in darkness. Lily removed her flashlight from her emergency kit and turned it on.

“Good idea,” Jack said.

“This is awful,” Lily commented as they surveyed the damage. The holoscreens that dotted the walls were cracked and broken. Large portions of the ceiling were ripped apart, exposing duct work and wires. The floor was bent out of shape. Pieces of doors were strewn about the hall, as if a hurricane had ripped through the hallway and yanked the doors off their hinges.

“Let’s find that stairwell and go up to the top,” Jack suggested. “That’s probably the most intact area of the ship.”

Lily shook her head. “I disagree. I say we search the ship thoroughly, starting here and working our way up. There’s no sense in skipping areas just because they don’t look promising. You never know what you might find.”

Jack shrugged. “Sounds good to me. Lead the way, dear!”

Lily turned and looked at him. “How did I become the leader of this expedition?”

“You’ve got the flashlight.”

“Ah,” Lily sighed. “Silly me.” She began carefully making her way down the hall.

The third floor had a surprising number of rooms, but nearly all of them were trashed. The room where they had been held in hibernation was a complete wreck. The stasis tables had been ripped off of the floor and thrown into the wall. Jack could not find a single piece of intact equipment in the entire room. Many of the other rooms were in the same condition. Whatever important equipment they might have held was now damaged beyond recognition.

After deciding that the third floor was a total loss they made their way to the stairwell and climbed up to the fourth floor. That floor proved to be more intact. The third door that Jack forced open led into a spacious bedroom.

Lily cheered when she saw that the room was largely intact. The bed had been turned over and slammed into one of the walls, but it was largely undamaged. By working together they were able to put it back into position.

“That’s sure going to beat sleeping on a metal floor!” Lily exclaimed. “And there are sheets! I’m so excited.”

Jack was surprised. “You want to stay in the ship tonight?”

“You’d better believe it! Where, exactly, did you expect us to make our camp? Back in the city of horrors? Out in the countryside? As you said yourself, our options are kind of slim.”

Jack shrugged. “Suits me.” He walked over to an overturned dresser and tried to set it up again as Lily attempted to pry open the closet door. When the closet door suddenly gave way Lily cheered again. “Clothes!” Lily exclaimed. Her face beamed. “And they’re women’s clothes, too.”

Jack glanced over to his wife. “But they’re all crumpled on the floor! They must have gotten knocked around when the ship crashed. Aren’t they wrinkled?”

“At this point I don’t care how wrinkled they are. They’re clean and are about my size. I can live with that! I can finally put on something that is a little more suited for hiking in cold, dimly-lit deserts.”

“Looks like we’ve got more clothing in here,” Jack grunted. He had managed to set the dresser back up. He sat down on the bed and rested a minute as Lily went through its contents.

“Alice has pretty good taste,” Lily said thoughtfully. “Pretty rich tastes, too. These are expensive, high-quality brands.”

“Do you think she’ll mind you borrowing her clothes?” Jack asked.

Lily shook her head. “I’m not going to worry about that right now. If we run into her I’ll ask. Otherwise I’m going to assume she doesn’t mind.”

Jack smiled. “You don’t see anything there that I could wear, do you? Did she have any pants or anything?”

His wife laughed. “You’re at least ten sizes and a hundred pounds larger than her! I bet you’d even have trouble putting on her socks. Don’t even think about it.”

“Shall we keep looking?” Jack asked.

“You keep looking,” Lily said. “You’ve got a flashlight. I’m going to stay in here, straighten the room, and change.”

“Don’t you want to get cleaned up first?” Jack asked. “There’s probably a shower here somewhere. You’ve been complaining all day about wanting one.”

Lily shook her head. “You can’t seriously believe that it would still work.”

Jack shrugged. “Maybe not. But what if we find water and soap? Are you really going to turn that down? Or what if there’s a comb somewhere?”

His wife paused for a moment as her eye caught sight of something on the floor. A strange look came across her face. “I don’t know, Jack. Maybe we’re looking at this all wrong. Maybe we’re too caught up in ourselves.”

“What do you mean?” Jack asked, surprised.

“Think about it. We are stranded on an alien planet that is probably thousands and thousands of light-years from home. There’s a good chance that nobody knows we are here. We’re almost certainly the only human beings on this world. There’s also a good chance that an evil being lives here that just stole one of the galaxy’s most prized secrets, for a reason we don’t know. And what are we doing, Jack? Are we trying to save civilization? Are we trying to defeat the forces of evil and save the day? No, we’re not. We’re looking for soap and water and better breakfast food.”

Jack looked at his wife in surprise. “You’ve been complaining all day about how miserable you are and how badly you want to get home! It wasn’t ten minutes ago that you were freaking out because you thought we would be stuck here forever. What happened? Did I miss something?”

Lily walked to a corner of the room and carefully picked a picture frame off the floor. The glass in it had shattered but the picture was still intact. Lily held up the picture so Jack could get a good look at it. “Do you see that?” she asked.

Jack nodded. “Sure do. It looks like Starman Alice, standing next to some girl.”

“That’s not some girl – that’s her sister! Don’t you see the family resemblance? You might be a good leader, honey, but you are awful when it comes to noticing things.”

Jack blushed. “I guess. But that’s what I have you for, dear. We’re a team you know.”

Lily continued. “Look. Here’s the point. This girl Alice had a family. A sister. And probably other relatives too. But she risked her life to come here and fight that evil monster. I don’t know if she succeeded or not. Maybe she managed to escape before the Molly was destroyed. I don’t know. But I do know she thought it was important enough to leave her family behind and put her life on the line.”

Lily looked her husband in the eye. “If she’s dead, Jack, that means that the only people left to finish her mission are the two of us. We may be the only hope that humanity has! If that’s true then we’d better get moving.”

“But we have no idea what she was doing here!” Jack protested. “We’re completely clueless. We’re not trained for this and we’re definitely not heroes. I’m just a technician and you’re an accountant. I’ve taken exactly zero hours of combat training. This mission is way beyond our skill level.”

“Sure. I guess. But who else is there? Maybe we’re not Starmen. Maybe we’re not Kathryn and Joe Taylor. But we may be all there is.”

Jack sighed. “I guess you’re right. Maybe we do need to do something about whatever it is that needs something done. Tell you what. Let’s finish exploring the ship and see what our options are. Once we know what tools we have available we’ll go from there.”

“That’ll work!” Lily replied. “Let’s do it.”

It took the rest of the day to finish going over the upper three decks. Jack was pleased to discover that there was actually a great deal that was salvageable. The rooms that housed the ship’s food supplies were largely intact, and the ship had a great deal of water on board as well. Lily was happy to discover that the ship did have soap and other toiletries.

In one closet Jack found a whole variety of wilderness survival tools. “Look at this! I see rope, climbing gear, electric lanterns, batteries, canteens, portable stoves, the works. Alice could have lived for months on this planet. She had everything she needed – even tents!”

Lily removed one of the lanterns and turned it on. When she saw that it emitted a bright, warm light she turned off her flashlight and put it back into her emergency kit. “This will certainly keep us going for a while,” she agreed.

Jack yawned. “I don’t know about you, but I’m getting tired. What would you say about having dinner, getting cleaned up, and going to bed? We can always search the bottom two decks tomorrow. They’re not going to go anywhere.”

“Ok,” Lily said. The two walked to the ship’s pantry, which was connected to a small dining room. Lily looked at the supplies thoughtfully. “The galley might not be working, but I bet we can use that portable camping stove to cook with. Why don’t you go get cleaned up while I cook dinner?”

“But I don’t have anything to change into!” Jack complained. “What am I supposed to do?”

Lily shook her head. “You could at least wash your face, dear. And shave. And maybe comb your hair. And wash your hands. Do you want me to make a complete list?”

“I get the picture,” Jack grumbled. “I’ll be back.”

A half-hour later he returned, feeling much better. When he entered the ship’s dining room he was surprised by what he saw. Lily had set a table with plates, silverware, glasses, and a portable lantern. Sitting on the table were plates stacked high with food. Lily was just pouring water into the glasses when Jack walked up.

Lily finished filling the glasses and set the pitcher down. Her husband walked over to her and kissed her. “I can’t believe you actually fixed pancakes!”

“And bacon!” Lily pointed out. “And cinnamon toast, too. I couldn’t find any orange juice, though, so we’ll have to make due with water.”

“That’ll work fine!” Jack said. “Thank you so much. This looks wonderful.”

The two sat down to eat. Jack was surprised at how hungry he was. “I guess those ration things aren’t as filling as I thought.”

“Maybe they’re actually meant for aliens,” Lily suggested. “By the way, what are your thoughts about the Raptor? Do you think you’ll be able to get any of her working again?”

Jack leaned back in his chair and relaxed. Now that his stomach was full he felt much better. “The bridge is a total loss, of course. The engines are largely intact, but given the ship’s massive structural damage it would be foolish to even attempt flight. So I don’t think there’s a point in trying to repair them.”

“What about communications?” Lily asked.

“I’m getting to that,” Jack replied. “The problem is I’m not very familiar with how interstellar communication works. For all I know that machinery might be largely intact and I just haven’t recognized it. There are so many wires and machines on board this ship that it boggles the mind. So my idea is to try to get the computer up and running. Maybe it could help us out.”

“Do you think that’s even possible?” Lily asked.

“I’m going to try and find out!” Jack said. “The computer core is housed in the center of the ship. It’s extremely well protected. The room was damaged in the crash but computers are something I know how to fix. I think I might be able to patch it back together again – enough to get by, anyway. The real problem, though, is going to be power. From what I could see the room that houses the power plant was totally destroyed. There’s nothing in there that can be salvaged.”

“So what are you going to do?” Lily asked. “Can you use the energy cells from flashlights?”

Jack laughed. “I’m afraid not, dear. I have a feeling we’re going to have to find a power supply somewhere in the city, and then somehow tie it into the ship.”

Lily paled. “I don’t like the sound of that.”

“It’s got to be done!” Jack replied. “But we can cross that bridge tomorrow. Right now I just want to get some sleep.”

Lily nodded. After they were done eating Jack washed the dishes while his wife got cleaned up and changed. The couple then went to bed. Tomorrow’s another day, Jack thought as he drifted off to sleep. Perhaps things are finally starting to look up for us.

Jack and Lily slept in the next morning. The sun was high in the sky before the two finally got out of bed. When they saw the time they ate a quick meal and then headed to the stairwell.

“This isn’t going to be easy,” Jack cautioned his wife. “There can’t be much left of the first two floors of this ship. We may have a very difficult time trying to work our way through.”

The couple entered the stairwell and walked down a flight of stairs. When they got to the second level Jack suddenly froze. The stairwell door leading to the second floor had been forced off its hinges and was carefully laid against a wall. From the stairwell he could see that the second floor was filled with debris, but someone had already cleared a pathway through it. The floor was covered in footprints – footprints that had clearly been made by someone after the ship crashed.

“Were you down here last night?” Jack asked his wife.

“Of course not!” she replied. “Were you?”

“Nope. But somebody was.”

Gathering up all his nerve, Jack grabbed the flashlight and stepped through the doorway onto the second floor. He flashed the light up and down the hallway. Sure enough, someone had cleared a path through the debris. At one point the visitor had used a weapon of some kind to cut a hole through a wall that had collapsed into the hallway. The trail ended at an open door.

Jack began walking down the path. His wife grabbed his arm. “Are you sure about this?” she asked.

“No,” he replied. “I’m not.” He resumed walking down the hallway, following the path that had already been cut. When he got to the end of the path he found himself standing in front of an open door. Jack shone his light inside the room. He gasped when he saw its contents.

“Weapons,” Lily said aloud. His wife was standing behind him. “I see lots and lots of weapons.”

Jack whistled. “You’re not kidding.” The walls of the room were lined with shelves, crates, and gun racks. He saw everything from a small laser pistol to crates of explosives to giant, menacing rifles.

After shining the light around and making sure that no one was hiding in the room the couple walked inside. “It looks like someone has cleaned the place up,” Lily remarked.

Jack had to agree. The weapons had obviously been banged up in the crash and covered in dirt, but someone had neatly put them all back into boxes and onto shelves. On a few weapons Jack could see fingerprints that had been left behind.

Lily pointed to a gun rack on the wall. “I see what they came for.”

Jack nodded. The rack had room for ten large rifles, but only nine were there. One of them was missing. Jack walked over and removed one of the weapons from the rack. It was a large, black rifle with a huge barrel and a shoulder strap. “What do you suppose this is?” he asked.

Lily looked at it. “It kind of looks like a laser rifle but it’s much too big. I’ve never seen anything quite like it before.”

“It’s got the Starlight Enterprise symbol on it,” Jack remarked. “Maybe it’s a special weapon only for Starmen.”

“I didn’t think Starmen carried weapons,” Lily said.

Jack shrugged. “I have no idea. Maybe they do when they’re on dangerous missions.” Jack slung the weapon over his shoulder.

“What are you doing?” Lily asked.

“Let me put it this way,” Jack said. “We need energy to start the ship’s computer, right?”

“Right.”

“So we’re going to have to make a trip into the city, right?”

Lily paused. “Yeah. We are.”

“Do you really want to go back there unarmed?”

“Not really. But neither of us have even seen that weapon before! We have no idea how to use it. Why not take one of these laser pistols? They look a lot easier to figure out.”

Jack shook his head. “Whoever was in here left the smaller guns behind and took the biggest weapon in here. I’m guessing there was a good reason for that.”

“Who do you think was in here?” his wife asked.

“I’m hoping it was Alice Montaine,” Jack replied. “If not then we may have a problem. A really big problem.”