Free Morning Song: A Seeders Universe Novel by Dean Wesley Smith

me.”

 
     
     
     
    SIXTEEN
     
     
    ROSCOE KNEW THERE were two major points of danger for the crew. And about fifty million minor ones. But those he couldn’t deal with. But he could take a few precautions on the major danger moments.
    His first major point was when they first left Fisher’s ship. If the big ship had a defense system, leaving the ship would be one place they all would stand no chance of any defense.
    Of course, the big ship could have taken them off of Fisher’s ship at any point, but it had not.
    Their scans showed that when they had arrived, the big ship powered up all environmental systems. After two days, every room and area in the ship had breathable atmosphere and was heated. Even the warehouses.
    But no other systems seemed to be running at all. And that told him they were going to have to turn them on.
    Fisher’s science team had informed him that the ship had maintained vacuum atmosphere interior and extremely cold temps before they arrived. Maria had confirmed that through her team.
    So it seemed the ship was welcoming them by at least turning on the lights. Roscoe wasn’t so sure if he liked that or not.
    At least it allowed them to explore easily.
    Maria and her people had also discovered that the ship had repair units that replicated and replaced any near-failing part during the long voyage. Some of those were on tasks now in various places in the ship.
    Roscoe just found it all stunning.
    So now, they had done all the scans they could. They had to step out of Fisher’s ship and onto the decks of the big hanger.
    He and Jonas were going to be the two to do it first.
    And he had convinced Fisher they needed to do that one act while still in contact with Chairman Ray and send him all scans of the result.
    So one hour after they had gotten in touch with Chairman Ray again, and with just under an hour left in trans-tunnel flight for the big ship, Jonas and Ray stood side-by-side, rifles over their shoulders, ready to go. They had decided to not seem threatening in any way, which was why they had their guns on their shoulders.
    “See you in a moment,” Roscoe said to Fisher and Maria.
    She smiled, but he could see the worry in her eyes.
    “I’ll jump us,” Roscoe said to Jonas, who nodded.
    “Do your thing, boss,” Jonas said.
    The next moment Roscoe had them standing on the big deck about a hundred paces from Fisher’s ship.
    The air smelled sort of stale, but not bad, and had a slight chill to it.
    Roscoe looked around, not sure what to expect.
    The monster room around them was too large to grasp. Like a distant sky, the ceiling overhead seemed to be full of lights. To his right, Roscoe could see a wall of some sort, but he had no idea how far that was, or even how tall that wall might be.
    Scale was totally lost in a space like this, so much so, it almost made him dizzy.
    “Wow,” Jonas said, slowly turning to look around. “Scans don’t even come close to showing the immensity of this place.”
    “Any problems?” Chairman Ray asked, his voice clear to Roscoe.
    Roscoe knew that about a thousand people were watching their every move and monitoring all data they were sending back from their sensors. Roscoe hadn’t wanted them wearing helmets, so they had on communications links with implanted mikes and ear buds. And about three ways to track them if the ship took them somewhere else.
    Anyone stepping onto this ship would have those communication methods and tracking devices.
    Maria answered him. “All scans of the Morning Song are showing no alarms or activity at all.”
    “We ants out here on the big field see nothing either,” Roscoe said, slowing turning and admiring the massive hanger deck.
    “Seems the ship doesn’t mind us,” Maria said.
    “Coming in,” Roscoe said.
    Roscoe jumped him and Jonas back to a special decontamination room on Fisher’s ship and the two of them were scanned at levels Roscoe didn’t want to think about.
    “Clear on the