Against Time Read online

  “I’m Calvin, head of security for ‘The R-12’.”

  Fisher introduced himself and Doc and shook the man’s hand, then asked, “The R-12?”

  Calvin laughed, his stomach shaking. “That’s the name of this ship. We built it so fast to get here, no one ever got around to actually naming it and the construction number just stuck. So why the honor of the stop here first this morning?”

  “I was wondering,” Fisher said, suddenly nervous for some reason, “if you recorded the events in all the survivor rooms yesterday?”

  “Sure did,” Calvin said.

  “Would it be possible to get an image of myself in L-266 talking with a woman survivor there?”

  “Sure,” Calvin said, smiling as he turned and headed toward a desk. “Thinking of making a rescue of your own?”

  “If I can find her again,” Fisher said. “And if she’d come with me.”

  He nodded. “Not going to be easy. But it is possible. I’ve heard there are about ten people up in transportation working on a similar idea as we speak. Smart to come here first.”

  “So it wasn’t possible for some people to just not be beamed back?” Doc asked, looking at me with a puzzled frown.

  “Nope,” Calvin said. “Transporting that many people in such a short time had to be done by a computer program. Anyone beamed to the ship had to be sent back down to the exact same position they left from. Their memories were fogged and they were put to sleep. No other way to handle that many people in time to save everyone.”

  “Makes complete sense,” Doc said.

  “That it does,” Fisher said, feeling relieved that he hadn’t failed Callie by not finding someone in time to stop her return.

  Calvin was bent over a panel, staring at a screen that Fisher couldn’t see.

  “What part of the room?”

  “Near the window, about in the center.”

  “There you are,” Calvin said.

  A moment later Calvin reached under the terminal and pulled up an image of Fisher sitting talking with Callie. It felt like a normal piece of paper, only the image was a top-level photograph.

  “I can see why you want to track her down,” Calvin said, smiling as he handed Fisher the paper.

  “Wow,” Doc said.

  All Fisher could do was just stare at the image in his hands. It was as if the photo was taken looking over his shoulder directly into Callie’s face.

  She was looking at him with those fantastic eyes, and she was smiling at him.

  “Thank you,” Doc said to Calvin.

  Fisher managed to pull his gaze away from Callie long enough to say thanks as well.

  “Just tell transportation that she was in Sector 3160 of L-266,” Calvin said, smiling at Fisher. “And be patient with them. They are jammed.”

  Fisher again thanked Calvin and then followed Doc over to the panel on the wall.

  All he could do was stare at the image in his hands.

  “We’ll find her,” Doc said. “Then it’s going to be up to you to convince her to come up here?”

  “If I do find her, do we have room on The Lady?” Fisher asked. “And will it be all right with you?”

  Doc just laughed. “It’s about time, don’t you think, that we use some of those extra suites we built?”

  Then he turned to the board and transported them to the people Fisher hoped would help him find Callie once again.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  THE ROOM FISHER AND DOC found themselves in was crowded. It was much smaller than the huge security area and had a dozen u-shaped stations with one person behind the station and a second sitting close by looking anxious.

  There were four others standing to one side, leaning against the wall.

  A woman behind the closest desk looked up and smiled at them. She had bright green eyes and the shortest hair Fisher had seen a woman wear. Being totally bald wasn’t far away for her, yet it looked great the way she wore it.

  “Looking for someone on the planet?” she asked.

  Fisher nodded.

  “We’ll be with you as quick as we can,” she said.

  Fisher and Doc stepped over against a wall. Fisher was stunned at how many people were in the same spot he found himself in. And he wondered about all the other ships that were getting ready to leave orbit. What would he be doing if he was on one of those ships right now?

  They stood there for a moment before Fisher finally turned to Doc. “No need for you to wait here with me. Head to engineering and I’ll meet you back in The Lady for lunch in three hours.”

  “You sure?” Doc asked.

  Fisher laughed. “I’m going to be fine. I only talked to the woman for a couple of hours. I might not even like her after I find her again.”

  Doc laughed. “Yeah, fat chance of that. First woman you’ve even noticed since you lost all the weight. Trust me, you’ll like her.”

  Fisher glanced at the picture of Callie in his hands and knew his friend was right.

  “Lunch,” Doc said. He moved over to the big board on the wall and a moment later vanished, off to his real love, engineering.

  Four others showed up after Fisher so that the small area around the panel was almost crowded. But people were leaving the desks, some looking sad, others just worried.

  Finally a woman wearing a summer-like green dress with short brown hair and sandals came up to the group still waiting and asked, “Who is next?”

  It took Fisher a moment and a guy pointing at him before he realized he was next.

  He followed her back to her station and she pulled up a chair in front of the monitor and some flat panels. “I’m Raina,” she said, giving him a smile that had some of the brightest and whitest teeth Fisher had ever seen. “I assume you are looking to find someone on the planet that you met yesterday?”

  Fisher nodded. “L-266, Section 3160.”

  He handed her the photo as she turned and looked at him with surprise.

  “We’ll that’s going to save some time scanning the room,” she said, glancing at the picture and handing it back to him. “Thanks for going to security first. Now let’s see if I can track back through the data on the transports to find her.”

  Her fingers danced over the flat panels and on the screen in front of her an area of the planet below appeared.

  With each movement of her fingers the image that Fisher could see on the screen focused in closer.

  The image was like looking down at a color photo of the surface.

  There were red dots everywhere. Fisher assumed the dots all represented a human. There were a lot of them, scattered, and as the screen moved in closer, there were fewer and fewer red dots.

  Finally, Raina stopped and sat back, shaking her head. “That’s the best I can do. She’s one of those thirty-four people.”

  She touched her board and then a moment later handed him the image that was on her screen. He could also see data on it as to the location on the planet of the image.

  “Sorry I couldn’t get it narrowed down any more than that?”

  He smiled. “She told me enough about her location that this is more than enough. Thank you.”

  “Well, that’s good,” she said.

  He stood.

  She turned and smiled at him. “Glad to be of help and welcome aboard.”

  He must have looked shocked and puzzled.

  She laughed. “Chairman Benson sent images of you and your friend with his announcement.”

  “Oh,” Fisher said, laughing. “Again, thanks.”

  He started to turn away, then had a thought and turned back. “How would I find some topographic maps of this area?”

  He sort of waved the image she had given him.

  Her fingers again danced over the screen and she handed him another image with topographic lines and the dots still showing.

  “Thanks,” he said, again. “Any chance you might have some information about natural features in this area? She survived in a cave and is staying in a large lodg
e beside the big natural cave.”

  This time it took Raina a little longer, her face frowning at times in a focused study, but when she turned to Fisher, she was smiling from ear-to-ear with her teeth almost lighting up the room. “You just made my entire day.”

  She pointed at the image she was handing Fisher. “Big cave, big lodge, one person way up in the mountains of that area, all alone.”

  Fisher stood there, staring at the image in his hand of a roof of a large lodge, some big parking lots and other buildings nearby, and an area showing a natural cave.

  There was a red dot in the lodge.

  “I think we found her,” Raina said, smiling.

  “I think we did,” Fisher said, smiling so hard he thought he was going to hurt himself.

  He felt levels of relief he didn’t realize he could feel. There was just something about Callie that drove him and now that he knew where she was the feeling of relief almost knocked his knees out from under him.

  But then he suddenly realized that there might be rules about having a person from a planet come on board The R-12. Did he need special permission?

  He looked at Raina. “Now what do I do?”

  “You go talk with her. No rules on bringing anyone back from the surface as long as they want to come. They must be willing and want to come with you.”

  “Well, she won’t remember me, but good to know all I have to do is convince her I’m from outer space.”

  Raina laughed, again showing all those wonderful white teeth. “Yeah, a challenge, but I’m betting you are up for it.”

  “And when I’m ready to go to the surface, who do I talk to and how do I get back?”

  Again Raina gave him that bright smile. “Me. I’ll help you with anything you need. It will be my pleasure.”

  Then she stood and hugged him and he hugged her back.

  “Thank you,” he said. “I can’t thank you enough.”

  “Just introduce me to her when she comes on board,” Raina said.

  “Deal,” Fisher said, hugging Raina once more, then turning to go.

  “See you soon?” she asked.

  “Soon,” he said. “Very soon.”

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  CALLIE WOKE with oldies rock music playing softly from the main room of her suite. Outside her window the light was coloring the top of the ridgeline that she could see. The day looked like it might be another beautiful one.

  She lay there on the wonderfully comfortable featherbed, the quilt pulled up to her chin, just thinking.

  Last night she had built a fire in the big stone fireplace in the main lodge front room. Then she had pulled over a couple chairs with stands and a couch and circled the fireplace at a distance where the fire would keep her warm, but not too close to take a chance of anything catching fire. She had put a quilt on each chair and two on the couch and oil lamps on both sides of the big stone mantel, two on the ends of the front desk, and lanterns on all the nearby tables.

  Plus she had three flashlights that she had found so far. She needed to go search the glove boxes of the cars for more. She had put one flashlight on the coffee table in front of the couch, another on the front desk, and another in her room near her bed.

  The fire turned out wonderfully, warming the big room and giving it a glowing orange look and light smoke smell that she just loved. And between the music and the crackling of the fire, she didn’t feel the pressure of the silence and being alone as much.

  She had taken an estimate of how much firewood she was going to need to have a fire like that every evening all winter long. She didn’t have enough, so the task of finding more went to the top of her list of things to start doing. She hoped the other buildings had wood, and that there was some outside someplace, because the idea of her cutting her own wood didn’t appeal in the slightest.

  She had also done an inventory of all of her food right after a dinner of turkey sandwich and cherry pie. Eating the way she did, she would easily have enough to make it a full year. In fact, she guessed she had enough to make it almost two years if she had to, considering how many cans of different items were in the storage. Her diet would become very bland, but at least she had enough to make it through the winter and into the spring before thinking about what to do next.

  And she had a hunch that the other buildings would have food supplies in them as well. She couldn’t go into the dorm for the Forest Service people because of the smell until at least next spring. Today she would look at the other cars and the other buildings higher up the valley.

  On the big board behind the main desk in the big room she had written in large letters her list of priorities.

  Today she also needed to search for more flashlights and batteries and oil for lamps. She had no idea how long the power would stay on, but she bet it wouldn’t be long if no one was maintaining the power grid in this area.

  And she had no idea how to even turn on the generators in the basement or how much fuel they had. Finding answers to those questions were on her main list, right near the top as well.

  She also needed to do a wash-load or two of clothes. She had found a bunch of women’s clothes that would fit her in the cars and in the rooms, but some were dirty, as well as her own clothes from the cave. Today was wash day as well as exploring day.

  She glanced at the clock.

  A little after seven in the morning. Time to get moving. She had a lot to do.

  By 7:30 she was finished showering and dressed in jeans, tennis shoes, a wool man’s shirt, and a light jacket.

  She had also put a pair of gloves in her jacket pocket.

  The fire in the fireplace was down to only embers that cracked and the music she had left on in the main lobby had shut itself off.

  She turned the music on again and set it to shuffle the selections through pop and country songs.

  Anything to keep the silence away.

  Then she went down to the old lunch room, put her coat and gloves on the counter, turned on the music she had set up down there as well, and went back into the kitchen to cook herself some breakfast.

  She was going to use the food that would spoil first, so this morning it was two eggs over easy cooked in butter, a thin slice of ham, and white toast.

  She had a hunch that in six months she would almost kill for this kind of breakfast. But right now she was going to enjoy it.

  She sat at the lunch counter, listening to a country western album from Blake Shelton and staring out through the trees as she savored her breakfast. Damn she was going to miss eggs.

  And ham. And toast.

  She shook that thought away and went back to planning the day.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  FISHER WENT BACK to The Lady with the maps of where Callie was and the picture of her sitting smiling at him.

  He spread the maps and picture out on the kitchen table and then went to working on some lunch. Doc wouldn’t be back for at least an hour, but that would give Fisher time to think. And he loved to cook and think at the same time.

  He couldn’t believe he was even considering going after Callie. More than likely under normal, calm circumstances, they wouldn’t even get along. But he doubted that.

  Those few hours of talking had been really special for him. And she had seemed very interested in him as well and very happy at the idea that she might be able to stay on board with him.

  So even if they didn’t end up getting along, he owed her the right to decide to come aboard and out of the death below. She could go back at any time if she wanted. He would not hold her.

  But the big problem was that she was isolated and wouldn’t remember him at all. The only rule about anyone coming from the surface to the ship is that they must want it.

  So he had to somehow come up with a way to introduce himself, let her get to know him a little, and then tell her about a spaceship in orbit that she could go to if she wanted.

  Just thinking that made him shake his head and laugh. She would think him a nut case and more
than likely just shoot him.

  And he wouldn’t blame her.

  So somehow he was going to need to get to know her and that might take time.

  And before he could even try that, he needed a ton more information. The biggest question he had was that if he walked up to her on the planet surface, would she understand a word he said? He was sure that the language systems that made them all seem to be speaking the same language was a shipboard feature. He needed to know if he could even talk with her, considering that they were from planets over sixty light years apart.

  He took a pad and started jotting down notes of things he would need to know while he worked on a bacon, lettuce, and tomato salad with a fresh balsamic dressing.

  Almost exactly on time Doc walked in followed by a tall, thin woman with thick eyebrows and dark black hair. She was almost as tall as Doc and when she smiled, her mouth seemed to just expand her face out sideways.

  She had on jeans, a light blouse with a white vest over it, and a badge that said Engineering on the vest.

  “Fisher, this is Kalinda from Engineering,” Doc said.

  He shook her hand and invited her to lunch. Luckily he had made more than enough. “Hope you are up for a bacon, lettuce and tomato salad.”

  “I would love that,” she said, smiling. “Doc said you usually made enough.”

  “Always,” Fisher said.

  She had a great voice and a great smile and she seemed to continually be staring at Doc.

  And Doc seemed to be returning the interest just fine.

  “Kalinda has been helping me understand some of the basics of their trans-tunnel drive,” Doc said.

  She just shook her head and laughed. “That took about three minutes, then he started asking questions that a couple of us had never thought to ask. We got permission from Benson to have him work with us.”

  “It’s going to be a blast,” Doc said, the smile so large, Fisher thought he might hurt himself.