She'd thought the golden drone was doughnut shaped when viewed from the monitor, but that wasn't quite true as the doughnut-hole wasn't actually a hole but only a depression. The drone was symmetrical, with the exception of the laser cone fused to the hull, and the clean cut across one edge of the drone. It must not have been completely inside the jump bubble, like Max's arm during Dee-Dubs inaugural voyage across the Longissima's debris field. With the realization that a good third of the drone was missing, Snow's fear of a sneak attack lessened, and she slid forward more easily. Max seemed to come to the same conclusion because rather than chastising her for her recklessness, he also slid closer.
Reckless action or not, the drone made no attempts on their lives, nor any other action. It lay dead on the hull with its interesting, mysterious innards exposed to the universe. Their initial attempts to pry it from the hull failed, unsurprisingly given their lack of tools. Next, they attempted to 'mine' it off using one of the drones. When that resulted only in additional damage to the hull, Max decided to do it manually. He made a second trip out with a laser cutting torch and the help of a pair of their own mining drones. Snow offered to do it but Max, predictably, insisted that he needed to. She left him to it and sat down in the cockpit to choose the asteroid they would jump to next. This time they needed to collect sufficient materials required to repair the hull and picking an asteroid that was less promising as a source of Akoronite actually suited their needs better. The last thing they needed was a surprise visit by an alien mining party to interrupt their ship refitting.
By the time Max had declared victory and stowed the alien drone in the cargo bay, she had chosen their destination, and done some thinking about what they would do next.
They jumped to the new asteroid, a small rock the size of a hamlet, and surveyed it carefully for signs of minerals and aliens. Happily, they found the minerals they were looking for, without any of the alien infestation that they could do without. The drones were deployed and quickly got to work. Most of them began sifting through the loose material on the surface. Three were tasked with further investigation of a ridge of solid metal or metal ore. The bulk of it was iron, but Linda held out some hope that the rocks might be titanium containing Ilmenite, which would allow them to properly match the hull material for their patch. Though almost any metal would do to plug the hole in a pinch, the structure would be sounder, and the repair permanent, if they matched materials correctly.
With the drones working, Snow and Max busied themselves cutting away the warped hull in long strips. The strip would be fed into the factory. The factory would print out new sections of the hull. Then, with the help of the drones which could make bonds in addition to breaking them, the hull would be fitted in place and bonded together at a molecular level. Literally good as new.
“So, the interference with the jump drive wasn't intentional. That's good news.” Snow pushed the new section of hull so that it floated along the ring of the factory on its way to Max. It was too large for the factory to pump it out in one piece without their assistance.
Max nodded. “But if it can happen by accident then it can be done intentionally.” Max caught the hull and pushed it back to Snow, now a tiny bit longer than it had been when she'd sent it.
“How were we supposed to jump back with a cargo load of the stuff if it interferes with the jump drive anyway?” Snow asked.
Max looked at her blankly. “Maybe it’s okay so long as it is inside the jump bubble… Linda? You have any idea? Is this a hopeless endeavor?”
“Hopeless? No. You two are full of hope. At all times. It makes for a very pleasant work environment,” Linda said, “but it was the uneven distribution of Akoronite, outside the jump bubble that was a problem.”
“That would be a nice problem to have wouldn't it? Just having so much Ako' available that we had trouble getting away from it,” Snow said.
Snow pushed the hull section to Max and received it back again.
“Can you imagine all the places we could go if it wasn't for GE?” Snow said.
“You mean if it wasn't for the jump travel ban?”
“Ya. Or if they just didn't exist.”
“It sure would be a different universe,” Max said. He went silent. And it looked like his imagination went somewhere he didn't like.
Snow decided that she did not want to know about the dark, what-if future being created in Max's mind.
“Where would you go first?” Snow said, “if we didn't have very important jobs to do.” She caught the hull section from Max and automatically passed it back to him.
“Centauri,” Max said, without hesitation. “Like Alpha-Centauri, or whichever.”
“Not Earth?”
“I would go to Earth. But I first I would visit Centauri.”
“Huh.”
“I just wonder what happened to the people who were left there,” Max said. “Do you think they're still there? They might be sleeping in their pods. Or hell, they might have started their own new civilization.”
“That is a good answer,” Snow said. With more than three and a half thousand years, they could have terraformed a planet or moon. Hell, they could have built their own small planet in that time.
“Where do we go now though. GE has us locked-down here,” Max said.
“I do have a destination picked out,” she said. “It's a little out of our neighborhood though.”
“A little?
“Ya. A little,” her voice said. Her face added, Weren't-you-listening? “As compared to the galaxy as a whole, it is very very 'a-little' out of our neighborhood It's well within our range of confidence.”
Max made a gesture with his shoulders that said, I-don't-know-what-that-is.
“If we jump beyond the range of our most accurate maps, we are likely to miss our target,” Snow said.
“Couldn't we then make a second jump to reach it?” Max asked.
“Sort of,” Snow said.
“Maybe. If we are close enough to see rightly where we are,” said Linda, “but if we land in the middle of an unknown space, either because we misjudged a star as closer or further because of its brightness, or because the star was not where we expected it to be because our data is old or incomplete, and the star moved unpredictably, then we could be lost for some time. And by some time, I mean quite possibly a long time.”
Snow tagged in. “But we do have an extensive list of options. Our maps are far and away better than anything we had on Earth. Even if we had only the two points of parallax, here and Earth, it would give us good information for a local system map. But we also have all the points in between to work with.”
“So, we're going to another star system. That's pretty exciting,” Max said.
“I'm excited,” Snow said, tossing the nearly complete hull section back to Max, and imagining what they might be doing with their time right now if the fate of Grailliyn wasn't on the line. If she had her way it would involve space suits off. Birthday suits on.
In the end they found no significant amount of titanium. So, the hole in the floor of the living quarters was scrubbed free of toothpaste and repaired with aluminum honeycomb lattice, sandwiched between two thin sheets of steel, and jointed with epoxy to complete the composite repair. With both repairs complete Snow couldn't think of any excuse that they should not carry on their mission with all due haste, and if Max had any excuses, he kept them to himself.
The ship was made 'extra' ready, meaning that all food, utensils, clothing, and any other loose gear was stowed, to prevent another toothpaste incident.
“This star doesn't have a name yet,” Snow said. “All the names the stars were given on Earth have been scrubbed from the network in an attempt to keep us from knowing where Earth is. Not knowing makes it harder to betray its location, though not impossible, I guess. The earthlings could probably find it if they put their heads together. All the names have been replaced with ludicrously long random numbers. Which is boring and uncool. What should we name this on
e?”
“Snow's Decision,” Max said without hesitation.
Doozer clicked and popped appreciatively. That was most likely due to the chunk of Doozer food he was munching through, though one could never be certain.
“Oh,” Linda said, “I get it, because Snow made the decision to go there.”
“I don't like it,” Snow said. “What if it sucks?”
“I think you know what will happen if it sucks. To the end of our lives and beyond, Snow's Decision will be questioned,” Max said, with a big grin on his stupid handsome face. “But consider this, what if it's great?”
She did consider it. She both liked and hated the risk. But she liked it more than she hated it. Her palms were damp as she reached out to find her lucky charm, stowed safely under her seat. She cradled Max's macerated forearm and hand. It was cleaned and polished and sealed in a thin clear resin for safety. And also, for sanitary reasons.
“Lucky paw, lucky paw! Hear my request!” she said. “I admit it is rather big!”
While she spoke, she tapped Doozer on the carapace with the skeletal hand. Doozer looked at her suspiciously, so she tactfully switched to tapping Max on the head with it.
“Guide my hand and yours, to the system that is the best. And I will be the smart one with a wig!”
“You’re not wearing a wig,” Max said, smirking.
“Shush, don't jinx me,” Snow said, and placed her lucky paw over the big red mushroom button.
Max smiled delightedly.
“Three-two-one,” she said as one word. She depressed the button with the skeletal hand.
The Universe bent in two, on an interstellar hinge, highlighted in a green field of energy. For a brief moment they were in two places. Then one.
Chapter 18
The ship appeared in a distant orbit around the large ringed sphere of a gas giant which was according to Snow, just as she expected. Linda's files on the system predicted the huge planet and her estimate of their entry point put them in orbit about said huge planet. Light from the distant star glinted through a broad band of rings and across the surfaces in the ship. With the brightest and most dangerous rays filtered out, a stunning rainbow played across the interior of the silent cockpit.
As it turned out, Snow's Decision turned out to be pretty great. Assuming you were looking for an amazing view of an amazing space-scape and assuming you were not looking for Akoronite. Because all indications were that there was little or none to be found.
Though it would have taken longer to determine that the system was void of the rare mineral, it took less time to rule it out as having much promise. But they agreed it was important to spend at least a small amount of time at their first interstellar stop.
There was a little discussion on what to name the planet. And though 'Snow's Decision Seven' would be an acceptable name according to protocol, it seemed like their first stop outside of their system deserved something more specific. Linda listed a number of suggestions with the roughly translated meaning of 'First Stop' and Snow settled on Primera Parada. She liked the sound of it.
Primera Parada had moons. Many moons. The largest, given the placeholder label PP-Eleven by the stellarpedia software, was somewhat larger than Mega, or Grailliyn or even Earth. The tidally locked planet shepherded the inner edge of its parent's ring system and was shrouded in an impenetrably thick swirling atmosphere. Any desire to visit the surface of the newly discovered world was quickly abandoned when Linda's estimate came in of the atmosphere’s surface crushing pressure. Ultimately, they stayed no longer than it took to gather useful positioning data, and to track some of the larger moons orbiting Primera Parada.
The pressure was then on Max.
“Let's see how good Max's Decision is,” Snow said, the Cheshire Cat grin on her face stealing much of the sting of her attempt to counter-haze him.
Max knew he was in a poor position. He had no experience at all with astrogeology. He also knew that they shouldn't be wasting time with his ignorant choices of destination, but he didn't want to be a poor sport, so he rolled with it. Besides, if they had any kind of certainty, there would be a list and they wouldn't be required to play guessing games at all. “Where's the shortlist, Linda,” he asked.
“Here you go, boss,” Linda said. A list of locations that were deemed to be possible sources of Akoronite filled the screen. It wasn't a very short, shortlist. “Might I suggest—”
“No, no, LC,” cut in Snow, “save that info. You're up next.”
“Slippery slope…” Linda said, though Max barely noticed.
Max considered the locations. He filtered them by position and viewed them by the map. The monitor was filled to overflowing and the stars floated out from the screen to fill the cockpit in a three-dimensional display, thanks no doubt to the chip in his head. Perhaps one day he would find time to read the manual. With his mind’s eye, as well as his mind’s chip, he picked a yellow star that was near the fuzzy edge of the confidence map. If they found no Akoronite, they would at least expand their options with new lines of parallax.
Linda labeled the star Max's Decision. Then Snow and Linda began to discuss where in the system they should target the jump. Max began to feel very dim-witted in comparison and retreated from the conversation.
He floated into the back of the ship, bouncing from wall to wall and propelling himself to the cargo bay. There, encased in a copper mesh bag and strapped to the wall, was the alien drone. He'd meant to examine it any number of times, but there had always been something more urgent to attend to. He unstrapped it and unfastened the clasp wrapping the copper mesh bag around the drone. The copper mesh was intended to stop the drone from transmitting any signals, if indeed it was still functioning and not dead as it seemed, and if indeed the aliens had no advanced communication tech that could circumvent the disruption of a copper bag. In this new system far from the menace of GE, Max felt safe taking it out of its wrapper.
He left the drone floating in the center of the cargo bay and pulled the bag smoothly away and off. The bag was almost as alien to him as the drone, but he fastened it to a clip and brought his attention to the large golden doughnut. He picked up an analyzer, pointed it at the drone and pulled the trigger. The analyzer beeped and spat out a reading. Gold. Max let out a hoot of excitement. Real gold.
“Max,” Snow said in his helmet, “we just picked up a radio signal.”
“Aaaa…” Max said. “Is it coming from inside the ship?”
“No of course not. Hmmmm. Maybe? What are you doing back there?”
“I just took the drone out of its camping bag, hold on a moment.” Max grabbed the bag and, with a bit of trial and error, slipped it back onto the golden drone. “How about now?”
“It's gone now.”
“Have you figured out our jump destination yet?”
“It's about as good as it's going to get,” Snow said.
“Technically it could get better…” Linda said, “but not like… quickly.”
“We're ready to jump,” Snow said, firmly.
“Very true,” Linda said.
“Okay. I will hold onto something here…” Max said, strapping the drone back onto the wall and holding tight to the strap.
“But… I thought you were going to press the button this time,” Snow said.
“I think we can let it slide this time. Don't worry, my reputation is still on the line,” Max said, “so go ahead and give it a press.”
“I already did while you were workin' your gums.”
There had been no indication that any change of position had taken place. Max had felt nothing at all. “Remind me why we make such a big deal about strapping in before a jump?”
“Evasive maneuvers,” Linda said.
The ship turned sharply, driving Max into the alien drone. As the Dee-Dub began to accelerate he did not. He drifted away from the drone and, not wholly ungently, into the bay doors on his back. Then the ship kicked into full acceleration. His back was pressed into t
he door controls on the otherwise flat bay doors, jabbing him in the center of his spine. He could hear the booster rockets firing with a steady hum.
“Sorry boss. Moon,” Linda said.
“I thought we would be matched to the nearest large mass, or in orbit or… something like that,” Max said. He adjusted his position, sliding onto a flatter section of hull, but the residual pain in his back made it difficult to keep the irritation out of his voice.
“More or less, yes,” Linda said. “We are in close orbit around a planet. Close enough for it to be the closest large mass. But there is a moon, Moving fast, fast, fast, nearly opposite to our orbit.”
“Therefore, vroom-vroom,” Snow said. “Just crawl up here. It's only two Gs. If we're going to die in a ball of flame then a splat on some strange moon, we might as well die together right?”
Max struggled against the acceleration making it to his feet. He looked to the wall that was usually a floor. There was a ladder pattern in the floor-wall that could be released if needed. But just standing up had been a challenge, he wasn't sure climbing a ladder, weighing more than twice usual, was something he wanted to try, unless he really had to. Maybe if it was life or death. “How likely is it that we are going to die?”
“Barring unforeseen forces, we have a zero percent chance of impact with the moon,” Linda said. “That's what you meant right? Because the answer to the more general question is very, very close to one hundred percent. In the fullness of time.”
“I was only joking,” Snow said. “You can't open the door any way. Doozer is smooshed against it, giving me dirty looks. His fur is sooo flat right now. Have you seen how small he is without all his fur poofed out?”
Max lay back down, relaxing against the bay doors and placed his faith in their designers that they would be strong enough to withstand a little pressure during boost. “Aren't you worried you'll use up all of our boost juice?”
Starship Invasion (Lost Colony Uprising Book 2) Page 15
