Lost in Time Chapter 16

[Ed Man]

Two Birds
Chapter 16

[Slaver] “I’ll have them taken to the airlock you need to get them some spacesuits if you don’t have them onboard your ship in two hours they go back to the pits and you loose your slaves and the money you paid for them do you understand?”
[Josh] “I understand I’ll meet you at the airlock I have some suits in my ship.”
Josh looked at Donna. “Come on lets go and get the suits I just bought us two slaves.”
As they were headed to the ship Sarah replied. “Josh I detected a weak reading of a hidden docking bay below the slave pits on your scanner. It’s masked somehow from our scans. I’ll have the suits ready by the time you get to the ship and the Clerk has a offer for your goods. I suggest you leave as soon as possible until we discover the contents of the bay and why it doesn’t show up on our scans.”

Josh and Donna went right to the ship and looked over the scans.
[Donna] “Commander the bay is not their and the stations floors add up to the size of the station.
How can something as big as a docking bay be in there?”
[Josh] “Sub space compression or some kind of space dimension I don’t know but we’re going to find out.”

Josh and Donna took the suits to the airlock where station security had the two pilots waiting.
[Guard] “Here are your slaves Pilot get them two onboard you ship then go and see the Clerk he has a offer for you.”
The two men quickly put the suits on and went to the ship with Josh.
[Dugan] “Thanks for getting us out of there we’ll pay you back somehow.”
[Josh] “I want you two to go in the back of the ship with Donna and get some food I have to go see the Stations Clerk about some merchandise I’m selling. When I get back I want a full debriefing from each of you after we undock.”
[Harvey] “Are you with the Argon Military? And can you take us back to Argon Space?”
[Josh] “Yes I’m with the Argon Military. I’m here just like you two I’ll explain when I get back.”

Josh headed for the Clerks office to get the payment.
[Clerk] “I see you still have your suit own are you leaving so soon?”
[Josh] “When we’re done I’m heading back to my ship and put the slaves I bought to work.”
[Clerk] “I seen you bought two slaves if you need more we’ll be glade to sell them to you. Here’s the offer for your goods I thank it’s a good price do you want to sell?”
[Josh] “It’s good enough for me I’ll take it.”
[Clerk] “It’s been a pleasure doing business with you Mr. Stone.”
“Just call me Rock.” Josh replied as he took the tokens and put them in his suit and headed for his ship.

Josh entered the ship and went to the back where the two pilots were. “Donna get us undocked and in open space and set a course for our station. Sarah as soon as we make open space transport all of us over to my ship and transport one of the pilots over to fly this ship back to the station he can mask his jump at the gate.”
[Harvey] “What kind transporter of do you have do we need to but our suits on?”
[Josh] “No. Do you know what year it is on Argon?”
[Harvey] “Yes of course I do.” As he told a date it placed his time period of over a hundred years earlier than Josh.
Dugan looked at Josh saying. “I’m from his future.” As he told the date he was from it was three years after Josh had disappeared.
[Josh] “How did you get here Dugan?”
[Dugan] “I was under attack from two Pirates so I headed for the gate. My ship must have malfunctioned as I entered the gate because I knew I had entered the wrong sector. My freighter was a mess so I had to crash land on the planet or die in space. I survived the crash but my ship was a loss. A group of people seen my ship go down and pulled me out of the wreckage and nursed me back to health. I ended up here after a raiding party came to our village looking for anything valuable and took me as a slave.”

[Josh] “Harvey tell us your story.”
[Harvey] “The Xenon were attacking a station my flight group was sent to intercept and destroy them. The fight ended up near a Gate where a Xenon ship beside me exploded sending my ship into the event horizon of the Gate. My ship exited into a unknown sector and my ship was badly damaged from the blast.
The sector was empty so I went back through the Gate looking for a station to dock at and contact the Argon Navy to come and get me. I seen a ship in the next sector headed for me as I flew out to meet him he and a ship that was tailing him opened fire on my ship. My fighter was already damaged and when they opened up on her I had to eject. I thought I was as good as dead then I was picked up by the Pirates that fired on me. My ship exploded right as they scoped me up into the cargo hole. They waited till my suit ran out of air and I passed out. When I came to I was tied up and they sold me as a slave.”

[Josh] “I have some bad news we’re stuck in the past for now and these are the sectors we traveled. The Gates are further apart that we were use to seeing them because they were pulled in closer when the sectors were developed by the races. We are home in our own sectors just the wrong time.”

[Harvey] “How did you end up here Mr. Stone?”
[Josh] “I was examining a time disturbance in a ancient structure we just discovered and got transported back to this time.”
[Harvey] “Mr. Stone how far back in time are we?”
[Josh] “As far as I can tell about 100 thousand years. And my name is now Stone that’s my undercover name my real name is Josh Galen.”
[Dugan] “Are you the Josh Galen that started Alpha Security and a few other businesses?”
[Josh] “That’s me. I hope that we are all from the same time line you both have heard of the butterfly affect haven’t you?”
[Dugan] “I thank so? If you go into the past and step on a butterfly and kill it your future could be altered.”
[Josh] “That’s it. Dugan on your ship did it have any data recorders left intact?”
[Dugan] “My ship was a mess I don’t know. They took my PDA from me when they kidnapped me, it worked and it has a security scanner built into it so it won’t work for anyone else.”
[Harvey] “They took my PDA and gear off of me too.”
[Josh] “Sarah scan the station for anything that could be theirs.”
[Sarah] “I scanned two PDA’s that could be Harvey’s and I have found Dugan’s. They are in a secured storage room what are your orders?”
[Josh] “Make defective copies of the PDA’s and replace them with the defective ones as you transport them onboard.”
[Sarah] “Understood Commander. The ship is clear do want to transport over to your ship now?”
[Josh] “Let us get ready first. I want you two to stand up we’re about to transport over to my ship.
[Everyone stood up.] We’re ready Sarah.”
Harvey was a little stunned as he looked around. “What just happened?”
[Donna] “Come with me Harvey you’re fine I’ll explain how it works to you and get you two settled in.”
[Kate] “Glade to see you made it out of there alive. We never stopped at that station to many bad stories and friends that never made it back out. We always steered way clear of that place when we had to travel through the sector.”
[Josh] ‘Well we’re going to stay her a little while till we get some bugs into that docking bay and get some scans. Sarah after you get the PDA’s getting a bug into that hidden bay and a scan of how it works is top priority.”
[Sarah] “I’ll get the surveillance team on it right away.”
[Josh] “No they have enough to do keep them advised of the findings but run the examination from this ship. Drop as many bugs as you need to get the job done. If their found make it look like they are from a rival Pirate group they are at war with.” [Sarah] “Understood. I have downloaded the data from the PDA‘s and placed them in the equipment locker.”
[Josh] “Are they the ones that belong to these two?” [Sarah] “Yes and one from a unknown.”
[Josh] “Then have Mary return them to Dugan and Harvey. Download the data and compare it to our time line I’ll look over the findings it in my room.”
As Josh looked over the data the data from Harvey’s PDA was in line but the other two were off. Scans from the Gate in the sector the ships were entering showed it had a different electronic reading on nacelle than the other Gates meaning it was deliberate. Which only added more questions to the list of who and why. After looking and searching for two days it looked like a door was the way into the bay. Scans showed the door opening up into a solid wall. The door was a portal into the bay and it had to be opened from the other side. Josh jumped to the sector where a team was already sending test probes through the Gate testing the reliability of the jumps. After several test it attracted the attention of the old Argon Mammoth and its fighters after sending a damaged fighter back and forth through the Gate collecting data.
After establish the Gate was safe Josh enter the sector.
[Josh] “Argon Mammoth we were testing the Gate to see if it was safe to use we mean you no harm.”
[Mammoth] “Who are you and what are your intentions?”
“I’m Josh Galen and we are stranded here just like you. I’m a Argon Special Forces Military adviser that was assigned to oversee a new sector before I ended up here. I would like to transport over and meet with your Commander.”
[Mammoth] “What do you mean transport over?”
[Josh] “As you have probably already discovered the Gate is transporting ships from different time periods into the sector. I’m from a later time period with advanced technologies we can transport people and supplies onto your ship.”
[Mammoth] “You have permission to transport one person over with no weapons.”
[Josh] “Thanks just mark a spot on the floor and step back.”
Josh took off his weapons and placed them on the table. “Sarah transport me over.”

As Josh transported over onto the Mammoth he was surround by three guards in a ready posture with weapons drawn. “That’s amazing my name is Captain Mitchell I’m the owner and Commander of this ship and it’s fighters please excuse our caution all we have seen is enemy ships dropping in from time to time playing with us. If you had meant us harm you could have just as easily just put a bomb onboard with that transporter welcome onboard Mr. Galen please come with me. Do you have some coffee onboard that ship of yours?”
[Josh] “Yes I do as a gesture of good faith make a list of the supplies you need and I’ll make them up for you.”
[Mitchell] “You’re a God sent Mr. Galen we’re about out of everything.”
[Josh] “What are you doing her Captain?”
[Mitchell] “We were stranded in this sector after a attack on our ship we were hit by a missile as we entered the Gate two of our fighter escorts that were following turned to engage the enemy and didn’t end up here the four we have in space were docked when we jumped. Not long after we entered the sector a group of people from the planet contacted us and ask for our help in defending their planet from Pirates. They supply us with food and fuel for our ships and we stand guard over the planet giving them time to build up their defences and ships to reinforce our position.”
[Josh] “How many people are they down there?”
[Mitchell] “Maybe a thousand or so most were hidding out in smaller groups when we arrived. A small militia group fought off and captured a freighter and two fighters from a raiding party that came to loot their village.”
[Josh] “I’ll help you if I can it seems we are both on similar quest. You and the people on the planet are welcome to join up with us. We’re looking to relocate on a new homeworld.”
[Mitchell] “Why now join us here we got a good start here?”
[Josh] “This systems sun is about to go nova. It’s building up and will explode in the next twenty years we done talked about that. You talk to your people I can give them the proof and readings if there is someone you trust to examine the data.”
[Mitchell] “Yes I do have a man onboard that can read your data and findings. I trust him if it checks out we’ll join you. If not we’ll stay. I can’t transport all the people on the planet in my ship for any length of time do you have a planet ready to colonize.”
[Josh] “No not yet but we’re looking. We’re looking for a planet far away from the Gate systems.
I can help you with the ship if you let me I’ll start building a ship in a secluded part of this system and supply you with a few more fighters to guard the gate and planet.”
[Mitchell] “I can’t speak for the locals but your help would be greatly welcomed from me and if my man says what you say is true about the sun we’ll be going with you. Let my man do his checking first and then we can both go down to the planet and tell them about your offer.”
[Josh] “That’s sounds good to me I’ll send the data over to your man. In the mean time I’ll transport you over some supplies and coffee.”
[Mitchell] “Do you have a freighter you’ll be sending to us? That’s a realy small ship we need a lot of supplies.”
[Josh] “That’s not my ship that’s our test ship we were sending through the Gate to test it. Sarah pull the ship in front of the Mammoth. Mitchell if you’ll take me to your bridge I’ll show you my ship.”
Mitchell took Josh to the bridge and looked out into space replying. “I don’t see it!”
[Josh] “Sarah uncloak the ship so the Captain can see it.”
[Mitchell] “///---- Has that been out their all along?”
[Josh] “Yes do you want to transport over and get a fresh cup of coffee and a have a meal with me so we can talk some more?” [Mitchell] “What doe’s it feel like to transport?”
[Josh] “It doesn’t feel like anything you go from point a to point b nothing happens to you it just moves you to a another place.”
[Mitchell] “Maybe next time I better stay here.”
[Josh] “Sarah transport a thermos of coffee over for the Captain then transport me back.”
A few seconds later a thermos was in front of them then Josh was gone. Mitchell scanned the thermos then picked it up and opened it and smelled the coffee. “Man that smells good.” Turned and smiled as he called his officers for a meeting as he took a sip of the coffee.

As Josh entered the ship and headed for his room Kate stopped him. “Josh the Advisers on the Venture are asking that you comtact them. They sent you a proposal they want your authorization to start something.”

[Josh] “Thanks I’ll look at it in my room.” As Josh pulled up and opened the transmission it was a request to start building two more large ships and a destroyer on the back side of a large asteroid on the outer realm of the system. The system had been explored and any ship that might enter the system couldn’t reach the asteroid in a year.
Josh looked over the data it was a sound ideal so he sent a communication back. “The proposal is sound you have my endorsement to start construction ASAP but build as many ships as you can fill before the cut off date. We have found a group of people on this planet that will be needing to join up with us any ship needed for their relocation can be build in sector. I will keep you all advised of our progress with our new found allies keep up the good work.”
[Josh] “Sarah send the memo. I want you to start looking for a building sight to build a ship at for the people on the planet. How many people are on the planet?”
[Sarah] “Scans show smaller groups spread out all over the planet they are a little under four thousand people. Some of the villages are well hidden and some of the structures and crash sites are over a hundred years old.”
[Josh] “Anything on the hidden bay yet?”
[Sarah] “No but the Rogue ship and assassins have left the Trading Station after refueling and set course for the Slayer Base a tracker team is following the ship. Mizar has the station up and running and has started trading with the locals.”
[Josh] “Have you made any progress with the scans from the Gate?”
[Sarah] “No but I did locate a device that has been added to the Gate that is causing the unusual readings.”
[Josh] “Can it be removed and what does it do?”
[Sarah] “I would advise against any attempts to remove it if you could get to it. And without knowing how the Gates work completely I don’t know what it does. We know Gates can shift or remove themselves from a sector completely meaning they have some kind of safeguarding or relocating built into them. They can be turned off and they can be destroyed. There is to many unknown factors to successfully negotiate a safe remedy for the Gate. I would advise leaving the sector because the Gate may itself leave the sector as the time draws closer for the suns collapse making it go nova and destroying this planet along with most of the system and traping whoever is in the sector until it returns.”
[Josh] “Then we better work fast then!”