Night of the Aurora (Salmon Run - Book 1)

Chapter 20

"Indeed I do, and we had need to use it tonight to save our lives. Life-forms from the surface are gaining entry into the ship," Nanuk said, patting the strap of the weapon. 

Zach nodded vigorously to that. He didn't ever want to come that close to another bear again. Well, an earth bear, at least. He was beginning to agree with Sasha. Nanuk seemed safe.

He shook himself. Nanuk admitted to not being of the Earth. How could they really trust any of them?

"There are scattered power and systems failures including bulkheads, doors, and containment force fields," Nanuk continued. "I believe the security-bots might also be affected. Obviously this is of great concern when some of the life-forms are considered dangerous."

"But not us!" Zach quickly said. "Sorry to interrupt, but I wanted to make it clear Sasha and I are not dangerous."

Nanuk looked down at them, the corners of his mouth quirking up, "Indeed. These two have not shown themselves to be dangerous."

"I am quite aware of the problems," Qeet said. "They are ship wide and have been occurring for a short time only. I believe they are related to the strong surges in the aurora above us, but I have not ascertained how as of yet. Until I do, I will not be able to compensate for the problem. I am not yet certain it is the aurora, but the timing is suspect."

"Do you mean to say you do not know how long these unacceptable problems will continue?" Yenni squeaked.

Qeet disappeared around to the other side of the tangle. "Perhaps you would care to come up here and aid me?"

"The last time I did that the Admiral threatened to have my hide," Yenni said, flicking his head.

Zach heard a twitter from somewhere in the ceiling, "Indeed, and well you should remember the warning. If it helps, the generator is pulling through a lot of power. The charging of the battery cells will soon be completed. It will be nice to be at full power again. For a while."

"Did the problems start with the aurora?" Zach asked. "It's a particularly strong one right now. It shut down the Solar Express."

"No, it did not start at that point." A tentacle dropping out of the ceiling for a moment told Zach where the engineer had disappeared to. A display zoomed upwards in response. "It began no more than twenty-eight ocks ago."

Whatever an 'ock' was.

"Can you shut down the generator to see if that has any effect," Nanuk suggested. "We may have a bad locater again."

"Do you think I have not thought of such a thing? No!" Came Qeet's voice from the midst of the ceiling. A tentacle came down and gestured, sending the display flying towards a pillar where it began circling it. "Do not tell me how I should conduct my duties. The generator is not at fault and shall remain operational. We need the power. It shall continue as long as the aurora remains so active."

"Aurora power generation. I wonder if we could do something like that?" Zach said quietly. He definitely needed to look up the Fairbanks aurora project. A break-through like that could help power every country in high northern or southern latitudes.

Sasha gestured at the equipment in the room, "I think this is beyond humans at this point."

"Not forever. If they can do it, why not humans at some point?" Zach raised his voice, "And the aurora is the only thing different tonight."

"Nice try, human. However, we have used the aurora for power generation many times and it has never resulted in this type of problem." Qeet reappeared out of the ceiling at another pillar. He dropped down and summoned to him another of the floating displays. "Many were as powerful, some more so. It cannot be the aurora."

Zach looked down at his watch. Over an hour since they'd left the train. He frowned again, "How long is twenty eight ocks?"

"Humans, you are distracting me." Qeet swung out of sight to the other side of the pillar.

"By my calculations, each ock is approximately two point four of your minutes," Nanuk said absently as he watched Qeet. He looked down at Zach. "Why do you ask?"

Zach did the calculations in his head, pushing his tongue against his cheek as he did so. He smiled. "It comes out about right."

"You get a twinkle in your eye when you figure something out," Sasha said with a lopsided grin. "Okay, share."

"The evacuation. It almost matches."

Sasha's brow wrinkled, "The evacuation? How can that have anything to do with this? The town doesn't even know this ship is here."

"If it isn't the aurora, then it has to be something else," Zach insisted. "Like us."

"What are you doing on the surface to affect my systems in such a way?" Qeet demanded, suddenly reappearing from behind the pillar, sticking straight out from a pipe with several tentacles to angle at them menacingly.

"Not us personally," Zach said quickly. "But, maybe the snow machines passing overhead might have done something."

Sasha pulled off her coat completely, leaving only the snow pants. "I hate to break this to you, but we've driven over this area before and no one has dropped down into a hidden spaceship."

"We've been here long enough we would have noticed such a phenomenon and solved the problem," Nanuk said. He shifted his weapon to the other arm. "Young Sasha is correct. It cannot be the problem."

"I'm suggesting the strong aurora and a lot of snow machines. At the same time. Has that happened?" Zach argued. He took off his own coat, the overheating making him feel more frustrated than he should. "The timing is too coincidental."

"Of course not, this is Old Man Isley's land." She sucked in her breath. "Oh, I see what you mean. It's always been just an isolated small hunting parties."

"What are these 'snow machines' you speak of?" Zach looked at Qeet to find all four eyes unblinkingly regarding him steadily. 

"They are a common human winter transport which travels on the surface of the snow," Nanuk explained. "But they are small. I do not see how they could be at fault."

The lights scattered around the room. Static appeared through the speakers.

Qeet disappeared into the ceiling in a flurry of arms. "Not again."

Zach felt an excitement build. "It's happening again? Is there a way to see what is happening at the surface?" 

"Perhaps the boy has found a possibility?" Yenni asked. He hopped up on a small chair to grab at one of the lower floating displays. A few jabs at the display with his tiny fingers and half of the display changed. 

"Look at marker eight." Nanuk moved to stand behind Yenni. Zach and Sasha crowded around the chair. "Or marker five."

"Don't touch the generator controls," Qeet shouted down at them.

"We're not touching your precious controls," Yenni shouted back. 

The display changed to show a view of the aurora-lit night outside. In the distance stood a line of trees and beyond rose high snow-covered mountains. And in the front of the trees were the bobbing front headlights of a big pack of snow machines. The red lights of another pack headed in the other direction.