Flight Of The Anasazi
By David Billiot
Copyright 2026: All rights reserved
Chapter 20: Plasma Pit Stop
The Roanoke was approaching the swarm that had sent the signal. Roma felt her anger building.
“Those are plasma extractors.” she said. “They’ve already put them out here.”
Stormer was silent.
“The signals coming from the objects don’t make sense, Captain.” Lozentz reported.
“Plausible deniability.” Roma stated.
“Any weapon systems?” Stormer asked.
“None we can see with our current scans.”
“They’re building something. What’s that?” Roma asked. “Helm, put us on a path to intercept.”
“Aye, Captain.”
The Roanoke got closer and once the ship passed beneath the heat shield of the closest extractor it was clear what was being built.
“They’re building another one. The older ones get damaged over time from flares so this might be the replacement.” Stormer said. “Communications, find us a laser port.”
“Aye, Commander.”
“This could be a lucky break.” Stormer added.
“Karen, I need any records you have about this.” Roma said.
“I do not have any records of a plasma extractor project here.” Karen stated.
“I can see them. They’re here. When we get connected dump the drives. I want to know who’s ass I need to chew out when we get back home.”
…
Two days after the power outage the Anasazi was docked at the local plasma extractor. Mark had ordered a full check of every system, every panel, and every wire in the ship. If there was a way to check it, they were checking it. The Anasazi was well built but hadn’t actually been built for such a long continuous mission.
The gravity was back on and Bluman walked up to Mark with a portable display to show him the list of parts the robot had determined needed replacement. Mark looked over the list and agreed to each item. Mark went back to what he was doing when Lalia came to him to show him something she found and didn’t know where it was supposed to go. She had just found it and even Mark didn’t know what it was.
“Must have broken off of something.” Mark thought and then had an idea. “Take it to medical and have Bruce scan it. Maybe Al can figure out what it is based on the scan.”
Mark yawned and then rolled his head on his shoulders.
“Captain, I believe I have news.” Al said.
“You do or you don’t.” Mark said as his eyes went back and forth from the schematic on the display and compared that to the actual wiring he was inspecting.
“Guidance has informed me that if our calculations are correct, we are a minimum of four jumps away from a star that likely has advanced technology.”
Mark stopped working. “Technology? Four jumps?”
“They will need to be long jumps. Each one will be more than five hours. But keeping the engines to the newly set safe speed and our data shows we can reach the star.”
“Four jumps. Are we planning a week’s worth of travel now?” Mark said. “That actually reinforces the need to not be complacent. We are fully stocked on food, right?”
“We have significantly more than enough.”
“But first we have to keep the ship together.” Mark said. “And let’s not forget the last time we found a system that had space flight, there was a war going on. We better be careful.”
…
“One at a time. What do you make of it?” Stormer said.
Fussy looked at the others present in the conn and offered, “Obviously it’s not meant to be understood. It’s code.”
“Code for who?” Jameson asked.
“Black ops.” Fussy said.
“So you think this is one of ours?” Roma asked.
“Where else could it have come from?” Fussy concluded. “Captain, you’ve been trying to get out here for nine years and they’ve been blocking you for at least that long.”
“Those structures are older than nine years.” Jameson pointed out.
Fussy shrugged. “We can’t tell how old they are. They’ve probably been here for a century or more. Or at least sent from Florida that long ago.”
“Before the war.” Roma concluded.
“The ports on it aren’t compatible with any standards we know of.” Stormer pointed out.
“So the story we’re putting together is during the war or before, one side or the other sent out at least one of these extractors. It took the long way to get here. All the data in the drives is encrypted and even after breaking the encryption it’s all in a fake language in an effort to prevent the other side from getting access to it.” Roma summed up.
“And after the war, anyone who remembered these were going to be here were gone.” Stormer concluded.
“Ha! Kept secret more like.” Fussy pushed.
“I have to be honest, Karen has already cracked the encryption and that’s the actual hard part.” Jameson said. “I say we pick one of these, wide the drive, have Karen write a new OS for it, and take it over. It’s exactly what we need.”
“I like that.” Roma said.
“To do that we’ll need to breach.” Stormer pointed out.
Roma nodded. “Assemble a team. I admit I am eager to go see what’s over there.”
“Captain, you’ll be needed on the Roanoke.” Stormer said. “I suggest we give the task to the second officer and one of the engineers.”
Roma felt a sting for a moment but made herself remember that command came with compromises. “Agreed. Jameson, who can you spare?”
“How exactly do you plan to breach?” Jameson asked.
“Let me just point out that there is an airlock.” Fussy said.
…
The Anasazi was in tip top shape. As much as a crew of two humans and one robot with limited intelligence could muster.
“We are ready to undock.” Al said. Mark looked out the viewport at the plasma extractor.
“Just hold off on undocking for a bit. I want to think about something.” Mark said.
Mark left the conn and went to his quarters to just sit on his bunk and think. He didn’t know why he was feeling like this. He wasn’t even sure what he was feeling. Was he ever going back to his normal life. And what of Lalia? If he did make it back would they really just let her live with him? Mark had had her in the medical scanner. She was human. But she was also alien. Not alien as some other kind of lifeform but still.
Mark and Lalia could just pick a nice habitable planet and survive on the Anasazi. Or, if that upcoming system with advanced technology was suitable they could settle down there. Every jump was a risk. Every jump was a danger. The recent power outage started to make Mark reconsider just jumping endlessly star to star.
“Al, I need a contingency plan.”
“For what eventuality?”
“When we get back, if we get back, our mission is not over. If Lalia is in danger, we will be bringing her home.”
“With the detailed measurements we have collected, the route and number of jumps can be calculated.”
“I just have to know she is going to be ok.”
“I understand, Captain. I will create a procedure.”
“Thanks.”
“Also, I should point out that the next star will be the smallest star we have visited. I believe this will be beneficial as it adds to and expands the data set we have already collected.”
“The thing I keep thinking about is who put all these plasma extractors out there.”
“We may never know.”
“I am changing the plan. Let’s get to a higher orbit and then instead of running the FTL during the sleep cycle let’s sleep here and do checks in the morning. If everything checks out, we’ll FTL then.”
“I will make the announcement to the crew.”
“Lalia and Bluman. I’ll tell ‘em.”
…
The Roanoke was docked at the plasma extractor thanks to the newly created docking port. Karen was indeed able to create software to take over the plasma extractor. This meant not only the ability to fabricate replacement parts for the damaged Roanoke but also the extractors could supply maximum power to the FTLs to maintain gravity in the ship. That was important because Delcor was still in medbay.
Gravity did not reach as far as the corridors in the extractors so when Roma went over to inspect it personally it was in zero G.
The lights were flickering on and off in the corridor of the extractor and because of the leak everyone had to use spacesuits.
“Progress report.” Roma said.
“The plasma extractor is producing FTL fuel.” Stormer said. “We’ll be stocked up on everything before we leave.”
“Don’t take too long. Delcor is stable but we need to get him back.” Fussy said.
“My guys are going over every millimeter of the Roanoke. It won’t do Delcor any good if the ship comes apart at the seams mid flight.” Jameson said.
“You both have good points.” Roma said. “Jameson, I want to know the moment we’re ready to go.”
“Aye, Captain.”
“Fussy, stay with Delcor. Do what you can for him.”
“Aye.”
“Karen, can you read us from in here?”
“Yes, Captain.”
“How many jumps is it going to take us to safely get back?”
…
“Everything checks out, Captain.” Lalia sounded out so Mark could understand her without a translation.
Mark smiled and kissed her hand. “Ready to go?” he asked her in her language.
She nodded.
“Strap in. Let’s get out of here.”
Lalia went to her seat and Mark buckled his harness. He listened for Lalia’s buckle to snap and then he touched the display near him. “Al, we’re all ready. Engage.”
Boom.
The Anasazi entered FTL. Mark and Lalia were free to move about the ship for the next six hours before the Anasazi would need to drop out of FTL.
“I have a surprise for you.” Lalia said to Mark.
“What’s that?”
She took his hand and brought him to their quarters. “Bruce helped me with this.”
“Bruce? You about to kick my butt at chess?”
“No.” she answered and then laughed.
She handed him a headset like the kind Mark used to use for the flight simulator. “What’s going on?”
“Put it on.”
Mark put on the headset and he saw the town called Epic Simulation of Life. Yes, the AI onboard the Anasazi actually named their fake town “Epic Simulation of Life” or ESOL for short. Mark just looked around for a bit and shrugged.
“The graphics are ok.”
One of the avatars walked up to him and she looked just like Lalia. “Which one is this one?” Mark asked.
“It’s me.” Lalia said.
“What?”
“They made characters for us. So we can walk around.”
“But really we are actually just sitting in our quarters.”
“I know. But we can walk around and talk to everyone. We can explore the countryside out side the town. We can see the sunset.”
“Ok. It’s ok.”
“Walk with me.”
The digital Mark walked with the digital Lalia and she brought him outside of town. There was a river and a bridge made of wood. She stopped him on the bridge. “This is going to be so amazing. Just watch.”
“I’m watching.” Mark said.
She led him further and on the other side of the bridge was the village. It wasn’t just any village. It was Lalia’s village. There weren’t any people there but the houses and buildings and everyday items of the village were there set up.
“Oh, wow. Now this is something.” Mark said.
“See. There’s my father’s house. And there’s the shaman’s house. And over there is the church you like.”
“And the bonfire.” Mark said.
“I thought about having the glowi colored or not colored. Al told me to make a button to change it back and forth.”
Digital Mark walked over to a spot and smiled. “This is where I was standing when I decided to ask you to dance.”
“I realize I might never see my home again.” Lalia said. “I didn’t really understand how far away we were going. But I’m here now. I miss my father. But I know he wants me to be happy. The only thing that makes him happy is to know that I am happy. Al told me about your plan. To send me away. I won’t go. This was my home. I was a little girl in Wood Meadow. Now I am a married woman. You are my home. With you is where I belong.”
“I’m just thinking of your safety.” Mark said.
“Come. I have one more thing to show you.”
Mark followed her and beyond the trees in the place where the Anasazi had landed now stood a full size model of Mark’s house. Mark figured they must have made it based on the render he had made before. Upon entering Mark noticed that there was no furniture or anything. Lalia brought Mark to one of the rooms. Inside he saw a nursery with a crib.
“Are you trying to tell me something?” Mark asked.
“Bruce confirmed it.” Lalia answered.
…
It was only Roma and Stormer in the captain’s quarters.
“Here is my plan.” Roma said. “We will keep two FTLs as backups. We will only use one for propulsion and three for braking. Karen’s plan is for fourteen jumps. The power will go out between each one so I need you to get it back on. Everyone will be on alert on the lookout for any damage.”
“The men are exhausted. We’ve had a bit of a break but they are exhausted.”
“We can’t stay here. Delcor needs medical attention.”
“Understood, Captain.”
“We don’t know what speed the FTL has to go to cause the exponential contraction so this will be a bit of a learning process. I need you to help me keep the morale up. We’re on our way home.”
All through the Roanoke men got to their stations. The Roanoke undocked from the plasma extractor and got into a higher orbit.
All the men were tense. Jump number one.
Boom.
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