process, the energy stream made a connection with a similar device; the receiver was in the other starship, which also had to be activated to allow the short hyperspace conduit to form. Transfer usually took several seconds, and nearby atmosphere tended to go along for the ride.
Sheppard waited in the transmat for a few moments before he found out what had happened. “Commodore Sheppard, this is Wilder; we have received information that Ambassador Renjir has decided to come aboard with his Talcon shuttlecraft. He evidently decided to take it with him at the last minute.”
“All right. I’m headed to fighter bay two,” Sheppard said, as he moved toward the tram that would rapidly take him to bay two. “If I recall correctly, we have some storage room there for his ship.” The group arrived in bay two just in time to see the sleek, advanced Talcon starship arrive. It was about the size of a Scimitar-class, two-man fighter that the Alliance used. The Talcon starcraft glided to a landing and was latched and then secured to a floor section.
Renjir got out, and in the lower gravity of the fighter bay, he flapped his wings and flew up, gliding to the area where Sheppard and the welcoming group were walking toward him. He had small, closely interspaced, grey-blue feathers and avian features with large eyes; instead of a nose, he had a hawk-like beak. Unlike a bird, he had arms and hands below his wings, and he seemed somewhat like a humanoid with wings. His hands were featherless with scales instead of skin; however, he did have four-fingered, mildly talon-like hands.
“Greetings, Commodore Robert Sheppard. I am Renjir Felkestaar,” the Talcon said in a high-pitched voice. “Hopefully, I can help you with contacting the other Talcon onboard the Star City.” To Sheppard, using his Star Knight senses to identify moods in aliens, this Talcon seemed to be almost smiling, so Sheppard smiled too, giving what he recently learned was a Talcon-style salute to a former military officer. Things got off to a good start. St. John’s report on the fellow was accurate; this Talcon was friendly.
Chapter 4
Space Goes Ever On
It had been only a few days of moving several ships to probable intercept coordinates for the Star City, and there seemed to be some occasional course corrections the Star City was undergoing, possibly as it updated stellar information. The Phoenix and the task force were still several days away from those intercept points. Since they were not in any danger at the moment, Commodore Sheppard allowed himself time to meditate and perform a Star Knight discipline. He would try to recall what happened in Quellus Borealis star system after the Protren arrived and things seemed to “white out,” including his memory of the subsequent events.
Commodore Sheppard headed down the corridor to the medical deck. “Elijah, good to see you,” Sheppard said. Dr. Grey turned around from monitoring a treatment. Sheppard had selected him for the chief medical officer position and later as chief fleet medical officer. “Sir…” Grey said.
“Not an official visit, Elijah,” Sheppard said, smiling. “More of a friend-to-friend visit, although I might need the doctor-patient kind too.”
“How so, Robert? Not feeling well today?” Grey replied smiling.
“I’m going to use a meditative Star Knight discipline, and I don’t want the medical staff to worry if my physical monitors give an abnormal reading during the process,” Sheppard said. “I probably won’t need actual monitoring, but I’d rather not have the med team signaled to go to my quarters for a possible medical emergency because of my life signs possibly fluctuating; therefore, I have come to the sick bay so you can monitor me.” Most people knew that Star Knights were not government-sanctioned police or guards but were more akin to special agents who belonged to various organizations, or orders. Fewer people knew their primary function was to preserve civilization.
“Oh, all right; let me finish this cellular layering repair, and then I can help you,” Grey said.
“That’s fine; no rush,” Sheppard replied. He watched Grey use the cellular layering device. It had produced several cell layers of skin, muscle, and bone.
“Now all I have to do is replace the part of this marine’s hand that carried the nerve,” said Grey. “This Zeltro cellular layering device creates cells and forms tissue components and even organ tissue to replace organ or body portions.”
Sheppard nodded as he watched; he was always interested in science, and one day, his more dangerous Star Knight activities might result in his benefitting from such a marvelous medical device. Sometimes Star Knight missions were dangerous, and such restorative devices would be beneficial.
“During the QB7 battle, we used some temporary devices as a quick fix, which allowed injured marines to manipulate the distal body parts using the focused signal sensor device to send signals to the muscles and bypass the damaged tissue or nerves,” Grey said. “Now that we have time, we are replacing his nerves and other tissues.”
“Yes, I recall seeing the med techs down on QB7 place some centimeter-sized implants above and below damaged arms or legs, and the marines could walk or use their weapons again,” replied Sheppard. “That was before my starfighter was blown-up on the landing area—the time Commander Taylor and I got separated from the outpost base by some Varlon troops.”
Shortly, Dr. Grey finished the restorative process on the marine officer. Then he asked, “Is this one of those psionic or telepathic Star Knight abilities that allows you to relive a traumatic or past event?”
“Yes, something like that,” Sheppard said. “I am doing it to recall some of what happened at QB7. It may not be completely helpful, but I should get some enlightenment.”
“Well, I think I can help. Why don’t you just lie down on this monitoring bed and be comfortable, Robert,” Grey said.
“Yes, I would rather lie down, of course,” Sheppard replied with a chuckle. “I would rather not cause a commotion when my clothing’s life-sign monitors send odd readings to the medical monitoring computer or have a med team be dispatched to investigate when I don’t respond to my commlink.”
Dr. Grey looked over at Commander Bell, one of the other physicians. “Connie, would you help with monitoring the commodore from time to time? I think he may be at his ‘telepathic meditation’ for several hours.”
Commander Constance Bell was a very capable physician. She was also a gorgeous brunette, and Sheppard knew that Grey was creating one of his arrangements again knowing Sheppard was not married—although in space, most of the captains could be considered married to the ship.
“No problem, Elijah, I would be glad to take turns monitoring Commodore Sheppard.”
“Oh, one question before I commence,” Sheppard said, looking at Dr. Bell. “Has the Varlon Nanotechnology finally been removed from the medical systems? Those torpedo attacks containing the nanobots caused some allergic reactions in the crew, if I recall correctly from an earlier report.”
“We have done a good cleaning job, as far as I can tell, Sir,” Bell replied. “I think the medical diagnostic systems were most affected…that is, before the entire ship seemed to be restored.”
“That’s right, Robert, the ship is clean now,” Grey added. “The report Bell made during the QB7 events was that the Varlon nanobots were causing havoc, but after the restoration event, they seemed to stop being a problem.”
“Well, I’m going to meditate on that very event,” Sheppard said. “Earlier I did not have the time,
