Captain Dodd looked at Wes and noticed that Wes was soaked from head to toe, possessed a rather pungent smell, and had a bright red mark on his forehead. She then noticed Tommy leaning against the wall holding his ribs trying to contain his laughter and though she tried mightily to keep her face stern, she started smiling.
Wes looked at the two of them and said, “It’s not funny. Half of the ceiling is covered in what was in that toilet.”
With that Tommy fell to the floor laughing uncontrollably and Captain Dodd lost it completely. Wes stood there fuming. Finally Captain Dodd said, “Mr. McAnn, go to your quarters and clean up and we’ll discuss this later.”
Wes looked at the two of them and then turned and stormed back up the hall toward his room. He slammed the door at the end of the hall. Sprig stuck his head out from the other end of the hall and said, “I had no idea the system had that much pressure.”
With that both Tommy and Captain Dodd were unable to breathe through their laughter.
Twenty minutes later after a cleanup detail had been sent to clean up the mess, Captain Dodd returned to the bridge to find the entire bridge crew trying to look normal; they had been following the chase on the ship’s monitors. They all returned to their seats and fought hard to maintain a straight face. Captain Dodd looked at them with the sternest face she could manage and then said, “Lt. Ortiz, please make an announcement that the wash room on deck three is out of order.”
The crew couldn’t help it, everyone doubled over laughing and even Dodd joined in. Wes’ new nickname from that day forward was “3D” which was short hand for “Deck 3”.
Chapter 5
Wes finally came to terms with Sprig after Captain Dodd made both of them sit down and discuss what happened. Sprig apologized profusely and said he was leaving to get the tools to make a repair when it happened. Eventually Wes understood that education is not a well planned adventure and that accidents can happen. Sprig for his part felt awful for Wes and from that day forward swore he would make it up to him. Wes left the meeting feeling better but knew that the nickname was his no matter what. He decided 3D was better than red spot.
Tommy would leave the ship occasionally to work with Atlas but they were making no progress at developing a faster form of propulsion. Atlas was at the pinnacle of his race’s technology and the Stars Realm was millions of years behind anything close to Atlas. They kept hitting walls in coming up with anything that would start to work. After eight months of effort, Tommy went back to Dorg-Ross no closer to a solution.
The two adolescents had made remarkable progress in their education. Only two hours a day was used in downloading new information and ten hours for processing all they had learned. Tommy had an idea and asked Sprig and Twig to meet him in the conference room with Captain Dodd. He decided that he needed help and that maybe the Adolescents could use their enormous storage of knowledge to help turn him in the right direction. Unfortunately, he was going to have to tell Captain Dodd what he intended because some experiments could be dangerous to her ship.
The four of them sat in the conference room and Captain Dodd still had her stern demeanor that seemed to never change when she was around Tommy. Tommy looked at the three and said, “What we are about to discuss falls under the category of “Safety of The State” and will not leave this room.” Captain Dodd sat up straighter in her chair and wondered what was going on. Tommy looked at Captain Dodd and said, “The adolescents know part of this but they know that what I’m about to tell you can never be revealed. However, I’m at a point where I am going to have to explore avenues that I would not ordinarily explore.”
Twig thought to Tommy where Captain Dodd could hear, “Are you sure you want to discuss this?”
Dodd looked at the Algean and knew that something big was about to happen. Tommy said, “I may not like the Captain, but I admire and trust her professionalism. I have observed her since we’ve been on the ship and I am of the opinion that she can be trusted with the knowledge. If she does not agree to take part, we will go to another ship.” Twig leaned from side to side showing her agreement.
Sprig said, “I do not think you can find a better ship than this one.”
Tommy looked at Captain Dodd and answered, “I agree, but I suspect that what I’m going to ask of you will involve a high degree of danger. This is a decision she will have to make on her own.”
Captain Dodd said, “What decision are you talking about?”
Tommy stood up and walked to the monitor on the wall and said, “Atlas, have you listened on everything said so far?”
The speaker on the monitor said, “I have but I’m not certain what you’re trying to do’”
Captain Dodd furrowed her brow and Tommy said, “I want you to take part in this discussion and we’ll see where it goes.”
Atlas said, “Please continue.”
Tommy looked Dodd and said, “Captain, Atlas is an Alfont.”
Cassie was stunned. She couldn’t find the words to say anything.
“Atlas was found by my father on Earth’s moon when he was trying to escape the directorate. He is an intelligent star ship and millions of years ago his race transferred their physical structure into the structure of their ship. Every member of the Royal Family as well as the leadership of the Algeans knows Atlas. No one else knows of his existence. Sprig and Twig are scheduled to complete their education with Atlas after their initial learning on this ship.”
The monitor on the wall said, “I’m pleased to make your acquaintance, Captain Dodd.”
Cassandra stammered out, “Thank you, uh, Atlas. It’s nice to meet you, too.”
Tommy said, “There’s more Captain Dodd. Atlas has a million of his fellow Alfonts being held captive by a race in a galaxy a long way from us. They have been captive for more than sixty million years and the captors are as far ahead of Atlas’ technologically as he is from us. Atlas will not even reveal what he knows about them out of fear that they will sense that revelation and attack. It is my chosen path to free his brothers from their captivity during my lifetime. Atlas and I have run into a knowledge barrier that has stopped us from finding the means of making it happen. How am I doing so far, Atlas?”
“I agree with everything so far, Tommy.”
“Good, now for the hard part. I am going to release the military data base and dump it into Twig and Sprig’s storage.” The two adolescents grew two feet immediately showing their surprise. Atlas, you are also going to dump your information center directly into them.”
Atlas said, “Wait a minute! That information contains the very thing I won’t reveal to you. I refuse to do it!”
Captain Dodd could hear fear in the Alfonts’ voice. She was still in a small state of shock over the revelation of a living Alfont; this new revelation was more than she could immediately process.”
“Atlas, you’re not going to do it electronically where the captors can sense it.”
There was a long pause and then Atlas said, “How do propose to do it otherwise.”
“The Algeans are telepathic. You will make the transfer mentally.”
Tommy waited for more than five minutes before Atlas said, “I would feel much safer if we had a means of escaping before I attempt this.”
“Atlas, we’ll go to a galaxy on the opposite end of the universe from the Captors location. We will work on the escape effort before we try but when it comes down to it, we have to risk it. If the transfer is done without interference from the Captors then you should feel safer giving us information mentally. However, we need a technological breakthrough to even start the process of freeing your kin.” Tommy paused and looked at the two adolescents and said, “We have two beings here that are stronger at correlating unrelated information than any computer in existence. We have to give them everything we have.”