Chapter 6 – The Return Home...
Sal found the observation deck rather empty when he floated in from the hall. The crew who had crowded the deck during the Carmack's disappearance was absent. The excitement and optimism so many of the crew had possessed when they first boarded the Klondike had dissipated following the ship's collection of firedrop. Save for Sal, only Captain Darringer and his navigators floated in the observation deck.
Captain Darringer surprised Sal by smiling as the young rookie with newly-dyed, red hair floated into the room.
"Glad to see we'll have a bit of an audience," the captain waved Sal to float close to his position in the center of the deck. "Maybe I should know better after all these years. Maybe I should know better after the losses we've suffered on this hop out to Glazkov. But I'm still in love with it all, Sal. Star-hopping steel feels like magic to me. A captain is a strange creature to feel so sad when his observation deck remains so empty upon the hop back home."
"I think I understand," Sal replied.
The captain nodded. "It's good you're here to see it. I tell you this, Sal, you can't take any of it for granted."
"Six minutes until anomaly delivery, captain." Navigator Garnett's eyes did not stray from her digital notebook's glow. "Sensors detect incoming fluctuations within normal ranges."
"All we can do now is wait," spoke the captain. "With any luck, the hole will open and we'll see the home system waiting for us."
Sal stared out of the observation deck towards the black segment of space where the anomaly was to open. Glazkov IV no longer thrilled his attention, though the planet still stormed and sparked. Sal did not want to again miss the anomaly's delivery as he had on his first hops back home. The anomaly arrived so quickly. Sal did not know if he would have another chance to witness space tear open.
"Are you planning to sign back on with us on our next hop, Sal?"
Sal hesitated to answer. So much had happened to monopolize his thoughts on that third hop that Sal had not given reenlistment much consideration. He had witnessed death, but he had also seen through his own eyes an alien field teeming with the incredible, glowing firedrop.
"Don't answer unless you know, Sal." Captain Darringer held up his hand. "Know that there will be a spot on our roster left open for you for several hops more. You're a veteran now, Sal. With a harvest drop under your belt. That means more than just red hair. It means you have skills. Skills we can use out here among the stars. Realize your own worth before you decide."
Navigator Garnett's fingers again flourished across her glowing notebook. "We're reading the gravitational discrepancies. The anomaly appears on schedule, just where the Sutter II said it would be. They've delivered as promised."
Captain Darringer winked at Sal. "Of course. Captain Montoya's a good, honest man. I knew he would not let us drift and wink out for a full share of the firedrop we supplied his cargo."
Navigator Garnett's concentration did not drift from her notebook's blinking numbers. "Anomaly arrival at any moment."
Sal stared through the deck's thick glass. He held his breath lest he blink. Though he could yet see no trace of the coming anomaly, Sal swore he could feel it. Perhaps his bones were becoming tuned as a a veteran spacer's bones. Perhaps his marrow began to feel the shifts and tugs rippling outside the Klondike.
"Magnify section A-19," spoke Captain Darringer.
The emptiness beyond the glass remained so complete that Sal hardly noticed the view expand. But in a heartbeat Sal saw the first traces of the anomaly arrive outside of the glass. A ring of shimmering blue and white appeared in the black. The ring's circumference expanded. A thin layer of space appeared to curl from the ring's edges, reminding Sal of paper retreating from a flame placed in the center of sheet of parchment.
Sal smiled as the hole soon realized its dimensions and ceased its expansion. The stars within that shimmering ring were no longer those that had twinkled only a few minutes before in that sector of space. Now, they were the stars of Earth's solar system. The view within the tear shifted, and mighty Jupiter, with its bands of reds, oranges and tans centered in the anomaly. Glazkov IV still sparked on the other side of the observation deck's glass, but its wonder could no longer compete with Jupiter's grandeur as Sal's thoughts flooded with memories of home.
"Star Control is kind to us," Captain Darrringer grinned. "They've delivered us an anomaly on Jupiter's doorstep. Jupiter's gravitational pull will make it easy on our engines to drift back home. We should have plenty of the old petro left in the tank, Navigator Garnett. Drift this creaking ship home."
The Klondike rumbled as its engines fired. Sal felt nothing as the ship passed through the shimmering anomaly before the ring collapsed and sealed the rift that had momentarily served as a bridge amongst the stars. A pair of tugs greeted the Klondike on the other side and moored to the ship to help Captain Darringer's crew return home. No one entered the observation deck. No one cheered. The captain placed no celebratory announcement over the speakers. Their cargo holds returned empty of firedrop, and they had lost one harvester craft and thirteen valuable crew members on their jump to Glazkov IV.
As his crew mates had warned, Sal's paycheck upon disembarking the Klondike was hardly half of what he had hoped for. Captain Darringer apologized to everyone, but his crew had realized when they signed their names upon his roster that nothing was guaranteed when hopping between the stars. Yet the company did its best to reward in another way. Each man and woman who had bravely ridden a harvester so close to Glazkov IV to land on a small moon named AU803 to pick the glowing treasure would receive a free blossom of firedrop.
Sal's hand trembled when he accepted the red, plastic token that would pay for his free blossom in a few days after the Klondike's cargo was unloaded and the firedrop properly distributed among the screaming tent vendors. Sal thought that perhaps a pulsating, glowing blossom of firedrop placed in his dark room as he slept would persuade his dreams to stop trying to remember the shape of Sissy Carpenter's face.
* * * * *
Firedrop Garnish Page 6
