Earth Undefeated (Forgotten Earth Book 4) by M.R. Forbes

Author:M.R. Forbes [Forbes, M.R.]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Published: 2018-08-20T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 30

The alien vessel wasn’t large. It also wasn’t in great shape. On first glance, it was clear to Hayden that some portion of the ship had been lost over a number of years. There were multiple points where the matte black alloy shell was picked away, exposing writing and joints and other components he couldn’t begin to understand. Sections of the metal skin were pock-marked and corroded, and the whole thing had an odd patina that suggested it had been submerged under water at some time.

What he assumed to be the cockpit was intact, as was the fuselage leading back to the reactor. The ship was angled and sleek like an arrowhead, the glass of the cockpit small and right against the frame. There was no seat to speak of, but rather an imprint in a foam-like material that suggested the shape of the thing that had piloted it. It matched the general form of the figure from the sphere fairly closely, though he could imagine a smaller-framed human fitting into the same impression.

Wires ran from the rear of the craft, out through holes drilled into the material and leading up into the ceiling. There were terminals and computers set up near the back of the ship too, their fans creating most of the noise in the chamber.

Where had Tinker found this? How had he found it? He couldn’t even begin to fathom all of the implications of an alien starship’s existence. Did the USSF know about it? What else about the history of the trife war had been buried.

Or forgotten.

Hayden broke out of his shocked stasis, moving cautiously toward the starship. He leaned over the cockpit, looking in through the glass. The systems were active and alive, screens showing what he assumed was the alien’s language. A simple bar on a screen to the right suggested that whatever it was monitoring required only around ten percent of its capacity. He thought it was probably monitoring a nuclear reactor or perhaps even an anti-matter component.

He circled to the rear of the craft, checking the wires leading out of the ship’s engines. Then he went to the terminals, looking them over. He wasn’t sure what he was searching for, but he figured he would know it when he saw it.

Finding nothing out of the ordinary, he circled the craft again, looking over the fuselage. Whatever the Other had done, it had altered the energy shield. If this were its ship of course it would know how to modify things to cause trouble. Had it changed something internal to the craft? He wanted to get into the cockpit, but he wasn’t sure how to open it.

He ran his hand along the edge of the glass, searching for a seam. He also looked for a switch or button or handle, or anything else that could serve to open it. His fingers brushed the alloy, the replacements registering it as grainy and rough though it looked smooth to the eye. When he zoomed in with his mechanical eye, he could see the specks on the alloy.

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