The Paladin Chronicles, page 13
Lensil, who had heard the screech of the Zillian and instantly knew that it had escaped, had drawn his knife from its scabbard and sent himself towards the path that he thought it would take, shouting at a stunned Ridi to take over the controls as he did so. The Zillian had bounced off the doorway to the plot-room, narrowly missing a slashing stroke at the dog as it went by, and was headed back towards the flight control stations. Lensil had missed his anticipated rendezvous with the lizard and the lizard had slapped the knife from his hands as he passed by. The effect had put Lensil into a tumbling spin towards the small hallway by the forward elevator tube, and away from the action.
Ridi, who had been watching the scene with disbelief, had braced herself for an impact with the Zill beast; and when they met, he had lashed at her, sending her back towards the forward view-screen. The recoiling effect of the encounter had sent the lizard back towards the corridor that led to the docking tube.
The ever observant Dr. Grosset had seen the knife bounce off the floor and had managed to grab it as it came bounding by. Holding himself with his free hand on one of the pop-out handholds, he braced his feet against the wall and launched himself out at the lizard that was floating by. He swung the blade with all his might and planted it squarely in the beast’s spine severing its spinal cord. The Zill screamed in pain as the knife found its target. It was now paralyzed from the waist down and it legs were hanging motionless from its body as it ricocheted off the corridor walls.
The recoil from the impact sent them away from each other and as they bounced off the walls, they went cartwheeling down the corridor, with Dr. Grosset just out of the slashing reach of the beast’s claws. As he tumbled down the hallway, he noticed the android still standing in its posing position by the elevator. He instantly realized that the android’s feet were magnetic and he yelled out an order to it, “Grab the reptile’s foot and take it into the docking tube!”
The android obeyed and it maneuvered the beast away from Dr. Grosset and into the elevator tube. Dr. Grosset had narrowly missed being ripped open by the creature’s slashing claws, but in doing so, he had managed to gain a handhold by the controls of the elevator. When the small panel door popped open, he punched the buttons in the same sequence that Ridi had used when she had jettisoned the other two androids, and in a moment, the door opened revealing the empty contents of the elevator compartment. As he looked back down the corridor, he saw the two Paladins staring at him in amazement.
Ridi’s attention quickly returned to the controls and she instinctively put the ship back into its gravitational roll. She heard the thuds of the two men’s bodies hitting the floor hard and these sounds were accompanied by grunts of pain. She yelled out in response to the sounds, “Sorry about that!”
Lensil shouted out in reply, “Reverse the engines!”
Chapter 3: Paladin Tears
Dr. Grosset struggled to his feet and looking down the corridor, he saw that Lensil had already regained his footing. He heard Lensil give the command to reverse the engines and immediately afterwards he was thrown forward, and went skidding on his belly down the corridor towards the flight control stations.
Lensil had not been so fortunate. The momentum of the ship had changed before he could brace himself for it and he was thrown over the sofa, landing hard on the three-dimensional display between the control stations, shattering its surface with the impact of his body. He moaned out to Ridi, “Easy...I meant...reverse engines easy.”
As Ridi looked down at him from her seat at the control station, she heard Dr. Grosset ask in a painful voice, “Are there any more of those things on board the ship?” She reiterated the question with one of her own, “Yea, Lensil, that’s a good question. Are there any more Zillians on board this ship?”
Lensil answered as he struggled to right himself over the remains of the display, “No...that was the only one. He must have escaped when we lost power.”
“Well, are there any other surprises on this ship we should know about Lensil?” Ridi asked the question because she was starting to wonder what other creatures might be lurking on his vessel.
“No, that’s it. No more surprises.” Lensil had spoken the words while still recovering from his hard fall against the display. If he had given the question careful consideration he would have mentioned something about the breeding stations for mice he had set up down below, one of which had been smashed by the Zillian during his escape and the mice that it contained were now free to roam the ship. For the moment though, his thoughts were occupied with the situation on the flight bridge and he asked, “Is George alright?”
Dr. Grosset spoke up, “I put him in Ridi’s quarters to get him out of the way of the beast’s claws.” The doctor turned his gaze down the corridor and called out, “George!”
Hearing his name called out, the dog cautiously peeked around the open door into the corridor. His floppy ears hung down the side of his head, as he looked both ways down the hallway searching for the beast that had tried to rip him open.
“It’s okay George. The beast is gone. I...killed it!” Dr. Grosset had said the words in an effort to reassure the dog, but as he said the part about killing the Zillian he raised his head triumphantly and turned back to the two Paladins as if to show his superiority. Ridi and Lensil frowned and lowered their heads a little in embarrassment.
The three of them watched as George hobbled out of Ridi’s quarters, still glancing over his shoulder as he made his way towards them.
“He looks like he’s injured!” Ridi spoke out in a sympathetic tone of voice.
Dr. Grosset walked over to the dog and crouching down on his knees began to examine it. “I should take him down to the lab and check him out. He may have internal injuries. Dogs are not designed for such activities and neither am I,” he said. “Come on George, let’s go down to the lab where I can see if these two Paladins have caused you to hurt yourself.” Dr.Grosset stood up and motioned for the dog to follow him and George dutifully followed him to the elevator, limping along as he went.
As the two of them entered the elevator, Dr. Grosset turned and said to the two Paladins, “No doubt when I return, you will be able to offer up some explanation for our present situation.” The elevator door closed behind him, leaving the two Paladins on the flight bridge staring at one another.
Dr. Grosset gingerly lifted the large dog up on the examining table and spoke to it, “Well George, let’s have a look at you.”
The Doctor began his examination by putting light pressure against various portions of the dog’s body. When he reached the dog’s foot, the dog let out a whimper. He made a mental note of the location and he continued his examination, poking and prodding as he looked at each part of the dog’s physique. There was a stethoscope attached to the table and in an effortless motion that reflected his expertise, he donned it and pressed it against the dog’s side.
The dog stood there patiently as the doctor examined him. George held his head looking forward and his eyes would occasionally glance at the Doctor, checking his facial expressions to see if there was any concern on them. When he was finished with one side of the dog, Dr. Grosset walked around the table and continued his examination on the other side. While he worked, the Doctor thought to himself how nice it would be if all his patients were so co-operative.
“O.K. now George, I’m going to have to lay you on your side to use this fancy equipment Lensil has here.” The Doctor spoke soothingly, trying to reassure the dog of his intentions before he attempted to lay the dog down.
The Doctor started to reach for the dog’s legs to coerce it to lay down, but to his surprise the dog sat down on its haunches and slowly laid himself prostrate before him; the table was designed for human sized patients and it easily accommodated the dog.
During his exploration of Lensil’s laboratory, he had come across a curious piece of non-invasive examining equipment and had tried it out on the dog while he was giving George one of his extensive lectures. He had explained its use to the dog, even though he knew the dog could not understand what he was saying. There was doubt in his mind if the dog remembered their practice session, but he was hoping that having been through it once the dog would not be to uncomfortable with the instrument.
It was a handheld device that had infrared sensing membranes on its bottom surface. The machine was about six inches wide, eight inches long and had about the thickness of an average person’s index finger. Its top surface was a display screen and when it was held over a subject, an image of the patient’s internal structures would be shown. This was possible because the device worked in conjunction with a small ultrasonic sensor that would be placed on the subject’s body. Both units, along with the table underneath the subject would send a signal to a computer and the computer would calculate the image to be shown -- and send that information to the handheld device, depicting a view of the patient’s anatomy. There was a small scroll wheel on the handheld unit’s surface and by scrolling it up and down, the depth of the penetration could be adjusted.
In addition to this, a three dimensional view of the patient would be projected just above the patient’s body and an examiner could view the subject’s anatomy in whole or part, depending on how the device was configured.
Like the laser-cannons and cryogenic shells, the table was yet another example of the Elders taking technologies that would be understandable to a less advanced species and adapting them to serve a specific purpose. The table and its associated equipment were an assimilation of several different technologies combined into a very complex machine that was simple to use. In addition to the ultrasonic frequencies, very long wavelength signals would be sent into the subject. Some of these would have shorter length signals laminated into them. When they were reflected, the shorter length signals embedded into the longer wavelength signals would be picked up and this information would be translated into an infrared signature. The sensors on the handheld unit would then interpret these.
The images produced were superior to magnetic resonance imaging because they revealed the temperatures and densities of the different organs and structures of the body being examined. The computer would determine whether these were normal or abnormal based on known guidelines. Guided by these inputs, a destructive beam could be precisely focused and any unwanted item such as a cyst could be removed down to the last molecule without an invasive procedure.
The ultra-sonic emitters on the units did not have to use an ultra-sonic carrying gel on their surface because a field conducive to this was projected between the emitter and the subject. This not only increased the reliability of the image, it also contributed to cleanliness and the comfort of the subject. The Doctor marveled at its simplicity of use as he conducted his examination.
Dr. Grosset was looking for indications of bruising or swelling of the dog’s internal organs and cracks or breaks in its bone structure. If he had been more skilled with the device, he might have noticed the wafer-thin membrane that had been wrapped around the dog’s brain. Lensil had implanted this organic based computer when the dog was just a puppy. It was very much like the organic computer membranes that were implanted within all the Paladins, the difference being that in the Paladins the membranes intertwined themselves between the structures of the brain. As the dog’s brain and head had grown, the membrane had grown along with it. It would be virtually undetectable to anyone unless he was specifically looking for it.
What he did notice was the almost invisible line around the dog’s skullcap indicating that brain surgery had been performed on the dog when it was very young. The dog no doubt had been injured as a puppy during one of Lensil’s poorly executed maneuvers, thought Dr. Grosset to himself, but the man did have a high order of surgical skill as was evidenced by the incision.
The Doctor finished his examination and as he smiled at the dog, he said, “George, except for a bruised foot, you are in exceptionally good condition for a dog that is sixteen years old.” As he spoke, the Doctor realized that Lensil must have given the dog the long-life agent.
The dog stood up and looked at the Doctor, wagging his short stubby tail as he did so. The Doctor expected the dog to jump off the table, but instead the dog held his injured foot up, as if asking the Doctor to set him back down on the floor. Dr. Grosset acquiesced and tenderly lifted the dog to the floor. While doing this he said, “George, my boy, I wouldn’t do this for just any old dog.”
The two of them made their way out of the lab and back up to the flight deck. When the elevator door opened, the Doctor noticed Ridi at the right control station and before he could speak, he saw the dog run over to her side and lay his head in her lap in greeting.
Ridi response to the dog’s advances was one word, said in a tone of voice that would convey happiness, “Georgie!” She followed up the exclamation with a question directed at Dr. Grosset, “Is he alright?” Her right hand was gently stoking the dog’s head and she was looking down at him as she spoke to the Doctor, who by now was standing behind the sofa.
“Except for a bruised foot, he is in exception health,” was Dr. Grosset’s reply.
“Would you both join me in the plot room?” It was Lensil, he had heard the elevator open and had leaned out of the plot room to see if George had returned. When he spoke, the dog left Ridi’s side and ran over to greet him. Lensil had gotten to his knees and George leaned his body into his waiting arms. As Lensil padded the dog on the shoulders, he said, “Looks like you’re gonna be okay, big boy.” The dog laid its head against Lensil’s shoulder and it was clear that it relished the attention from Lensil. They were two old companions and the closeness between them had finally manifested itself for Ridi and the Doctor to see.
When the two finished their greeting, Lensil stood up and said, “Shall we have a look at the display.” He had taken the memory block from the shattered display on the flight bridge and inserted it and his amulet into the plot room display. From the scans of the stars that had been taken since the culmination of the D-jump, together with the stored plots in the memory block and the amulet, the display was able show their location -- and the deviation from the original route that had been plotted.
“It seems we are two hundred and fifty light-years from our intended destination. The timing calculations that were input into the flight system were incorrect and we narrowly missed being slammed into the moon of this planet.” Lensil’s pointer was on a planetary system that was now an incredible distance behind them and he was looking disapprovingly at Ridi.
“There was nothing wrong with the calculations and I resent the accusation that I’m the cause of our situation. This is the display that I took the plot from and there is obviously something wrong with it. Everyone saw it flicker when my father was giving his presentation, so don’t try to blame me when the cause is obviously your lack of maintenance on this ship. If you hadn’t been so involved with your androids and your pet lizard, maybe we wouldn’t be in this predicament.” Ridi was incensed that Lensil would try to blame her for their bad circumstances.
“There’s nothing wrong with the plot display! Why don’t you just admit that your calculations were wrong?” was Lensil’s angry reply.
“I repeat, there was nothing wrong with my calculations,” responded Ridi quickly.
“Uh, if I may butt in, what exactly are you saying went wrong, Lensil?” Dr. Grosset decided he had better intervene before the argument between the two Paladins got out of hand.
“Well, to put it simply, the timing calculations were supposed to be made to get us to this point, but instead our jump timing was calculated to have us come out to this moon at forty-times the speed of light. If it had not been for my skill as a pilot, we would have been smashed.” Lensil had directed another jab at Ridi’s calculations.
Thinking back, Dr. Grosset realized that he might have inadvertently disarranged the display before Ridi had downloaded the D-jump coordinates. Ridi was about to fire back at Lensil when Dr. Grosset spoke up. His sense of self-esteem would not let a woman take the blame for something he might have caused, “I’m afraid that I might have caused our present situation. I was playing around with the display before Ridi downloaded the coordinates. I had no idea that it might wreck the navigational plot. So it was neither of you who was at fault...it was me.”
His comment had left Lensil and Ridi staring at one another, but it was Ridi who broke the silence. “Well Doctor...don’t blame yourself. I should have checked the plot to make sure it was accurate. In fact I would have, if I had not been so upset because a certain individual had groped at me.”
Lensil looked at Ridi and the Doctor and started to fire back a response, but at the last second changed his tone and said, “I could offer up an explanation for that, but I’m sure you wouldn’t listen...I think the thing to do now is try to find a way out of this mess. The hull is damaged...the first thing we should do is find a terrestrial planet that has a breathable atmosphere so we can affect repairs... if they are necessary.”
He looked back at the display and using the keypad, in just a few moments he had illuminated several planets in their region of space that could be used for this purpose. Judging their present location and the distance it would take them to slow down to sub-light speed, he put the pointer on a planet and said, “This looks like the most promising place to make a landing.”
As he put the light-pointer on the planet, text appeared in the middle of the three-dimensional display. He was startled to see that Maatasaah and Sandovaar had authored it. The text read in short cryptic lines, one above the other: Breathable atmosphere, Volcanic with high levels of oxygen and carbon dioxide, Heavy vegetation, Primitive reptiles and poisonous vipers, Vipers are particularly venomous, Many varieties of carnivorous reptiles.
