Beyond Uranus

by Stewart Bruce & Nigel Moreland

  “What happens if they start shooting at us?”

  “The galaxy isn’t made up of territorial species all trying to defend or invade each other’s domains. It’s nothing like what your Earth films depict, there simply aren’t alien races attacking each other with massive death ships that can destroy whole planets. Ships don’t carry weapons and we don’t blow each other out of the cosmos. Your hull is indestructible so what would be the point? What we do is gently persuade the intruder to leave or, as you might say, lean on him a bit!”

  “What if they won’t go?”

  “Then you’ll be able to get close enough to attach yourself to the hull and push it out of the exclusion zone by force. Your singularity drive will outperform any space tourist’s propulsion system. Let me introduce your team for today this is Francesca Bruce, Amelia Rose and Neil Evens. I’m going to teach you how to work with your patrol team to successfully repel intruders. Are you ready?”

  “As I’ll ever be.”

  Twenty minutes later and we were far enough out that the station was barely a dot in the distance. It’s funny how there’s no horizon in space, everything sort of goes on forever and it is hard to work out which is up and which is down. Anyway, Simon let me try the manoeuvre several times to get use to positioning my ship in front of the intruder and then fly in a close formation. By the afternoon the manoeuvre was becoming more demanding as the speeds went faster. It got to the point where we had to Hyper Travel for micro seconds to be able to position ourselves correctly which could only be done by synchronising all four ships through Adams. The final ship of the afternoon was a real pig as it kept on Hyper Travelling to avoid us. The only way to block the ship was to get Adams to predict its Hyper Travel and then make two jumps. The first jump took up to a position two kilometres off to the side of the ship and the second brought up right in front of the ship which would stop it from hyper Travelling.

  It had been another hard day and by the time we got to debrief I was knackered. Simon went round each pilot for feedback, which seemed to be mostly positive.

  Before we finished Neil turned to me and said “Now then boyo, you gonna join us for dinner in the restaurant, we’re off there now for something to eat.”

  “I’d love to.”

  Simon finished the debrief by saying “My office tomorrow at nine sharp, please Roy. And you’ll need to be tip-top, so get a good night’s sleep”

  “OK. What are we doing tomorrow?”

  “You are going to have a test.”

  “A test!”

  “Yes. We’re going to test you. I’m sure you’re going to do fine.”

  “Thanks... I think.”

  We all left the office and headed for the restaurant. It was nice having company because I’d actually spent a few nights alone. The pilots were a pleasure to be with and nothing like they were at the reception; there was no mention of qualifications and quite a bit of light hearted banter. A little after seven o’clock I left to get some sleep ready for tomorrow. I felt like I’d made four new friends including Gary from yesterday. When Adams and I got home, we went straight into battle and to cap a fine day off, I equalled his score.

  “I feel some ass kicking is gonna happen soon Adams.”

  “You’re obsessed with beating donkeys”

  *

  Today is day five of training, test day. I was a minute early when I knocked on Simon’s door. As Simon ushered me in, he pointed to the group of three pilots that would be flying with me today, all of them were new to me and unrecognised.

  Simon Started. “OK so today is test day. We are going to throw one test at you to see how you will cope. There are multiple solutions to the test but only you and your computer can come up with them. Normally you would ask for input from your team, but not for this test. Let me introduce the members of your team today. This is John D’Eath, Emily James and Danny Hughes.”

  Twenty minutes later and we were at the standard intercept point, well away from the station. I spent the first hour twiddling my thumbs and staring at blank scanner screens, waiting for a contact and then my long range scanner picked up a freighter. By Hyper Travelling for two seconds, we moved to intercept. Coming out of Hyper Travel, when the monitors flicked back on there was the freighter. It was big, about a kilometre long but looked totally different to the ones I’d been practicing on. The ship was cylindrical and although the ends looked perfectly flat the body wasn’t smooth, it was misshapen with randomly placed bulges and indentations.

  “So what’s your first thought?” asked Simon.

  “Well, in every example I did yesterday I clamped onto to underside or side of the ship. I guess we could use two ships on either side clamping onto the hull. I can’t tell which is the top, bottom or side, so I guess it doesn’t matter where we clamp as long as we are on the same line as each other.”

  “Try clamping on your own first.” suggested Simon.

  I positioned my ship and tried to clamp onto the side. My ship rolled and slid up the side of the freighter.

  Simon added “The material of this freighter means that you cannot clamp onto the cylinder because your ships clamps cannot get a proper grip. You are going to have to think of another solution.”

  “Adams?”

  “Yes Roy.”

  “What’s the quickest solution to this ship from entering the solar system?”

  “The quickest solution is to detonate the outer casing of our Quantum Singularity Drive. The resulting black hole should suck in all the matter from a four light year radius which will obviously include the freighter.”

  “And us, all the Earth Stations and the entire solar system. Are you taking the piss?”

  Simon leaned over “If you remember I said a few days ago that your computer won’t always give you the best solution and sometimes you need to decide what to do which might be a compromise.”

  “OK. Adams can we position two ships on either end of the freighter and use the manoeuvring thrusters to change the trajectory?”

  “Yes Roy but it will take three days and seven hours with seven shift changes to move the freighter.”

  “Well done!” said Simon.

  “Err... I haven’t finished yet Simon. Adams can we position two ships to push the other two ships?”

  “No Roy, the sheering force will make the clamps unstable.”

  “What if the ships that are clamped to the freighter apply maximum forward thrust?”

  “Yes, I think that will hold the ships in place on the freighter.”

  “OK. Adams, patch me into the three other ships.”

  “It’s ready.”

  “John and Emily I want you to position yourselves on either side of the freighter, clamp on, sync your engines and apply maximum forward thrust.”

  Within in thirty seconds both ships were ready. “Danny I want you to position your ship so that your cockpit touches the link corridor of Emily’s ship and then I’m going to sync your singularity drive with mine.”

  Danny moved his ship into position and I locked my ship on John’s ship.

  “Are we in sync Adams?”

  “Yes Roy.”

  “OK start applying thrust and slowly increase to maximum. How long will it take to change the trajectory sufficiently to avoid the solar system?”

  “About half an hour Roy.”

  I turned around and looked at Simon “Is that OK?”

  Simon was staring at the scene in front of him. Not that you could see a lot because the view was taken up with the link corridor between the cockpit and the drive section of John’s ship.

  “Inspired,” was the only words that came from Simon.

  An hour later and we were all sat in Simon’s office. “Can I have some feedback please pilots,” said Simon.

  Emily started with “I thought it was an innovative solution.”

  Danny added “I liked it. It was simple and quick and...”

  John cut him off, his sonorous voice growling, “and it was wrong. It wa
s not the correct solution to the problem.”

  “But it was effective,” said Simon calmly.

  “No, it was wrong. The correct solution is to position two ships, either side of the freighter and move the trajectory slowly and gently. This was a stupid, foolhardy solution. You don’t use our ships like that, you use the clamps.”

  “Well I think it was an inspired solution that also saved a lot of time.”

  “Well I think you’re wrong and that if you pass Roy fit for duty, you are asking for trouble.”

  “I’m sorry John but that’s exactly what I’m going to do because I feel...” Simon never finished his sentence because John got up, knocking his chair over and stomped out. There were a few moments of stunned silence before Simon continued. “I don’t know what that was about but welcome to the team Roy. You now have two days to rest and then we will assign you to a team for full patrol duties. I want to see you here in my office at noon in two days. Meanwhile, we have arranged a small reception in the Pilot’s Bar and I’ve given Russell permission to serve you a pint of lager as it’s a special occasion. As you’ve got two days off the alcohol will have passed through your system well and truly before you next Hyper Travel.”

  “I thought the station had a no alcohol policy?”

  “It does but there are rare occasions when it is permitted and I’ve decided you deserve it.”

  When I arrived at the bar most of the other pilots who weren’t on duty were there. As I entered they gave a round of applause and I waved, beaming a huge smile. How things had changed in only one week. When I first arrived, full of insecurities, I felt like a complete outsider and worried that I wasn’t good enough to be trained as a pilot. Now I felt like one of the team, on merit.

  Russell was at the bar as usual and was polishing a pint glass.

  “Just for a change I think I’ll have a Vodka-martini, shaken not stirred.” I said doing a terrible Sean Connery impersonation.

  Russell’s jaw dropped and his face turned ashen, he was about to stutter something, when I burst into laughter. “Only joking, a pint of lager, please Russell.”

  His face mended and the normal good natured smile reasserted itself. “Coming right up, Roy. Sorry we don’t have any on tap but I’ve been chilling a can for you all day, I knew it would be good news.”

  Russell slowly and carefully rippled the amber nectar into the sparkling glass and handed it over, beaming with the pleasure of a job well done. I picked it up and held it to the light.

  “Oh lager, how I’ve missed thee. Your golden hue ain’t misty and now I’m going to get pissty.” It was a very bad rhyme but I thought it appropriate, however I wasn’t going to get pissed on only one pint. I brought the glass to my lips but before I took a sip somebody shouted “ROY!”

  I put the pint down and turned around, it was Claire. She looked fantastic. She walked, near ran, over to me and gave me a big hug “I’ve really missed you Claire.”

  “Good, I’ve missed you too and I’ve also got two days off so we can spend time together. Let’s go and mingle with the other pilots.”

  We went and had a chat with each group whilst I slowly sipped my pint. It felt great to be talking to all the other pilots and it was different because I was also a pilot and not just a school teacher with a computer science degree. After about half an hour John arrived and sat at the bar.

  “Did you hear about John?” I said to Claire

  “Doctor D’Eath?”

  “What?”

  “He has a PhD and his last name is D’Eath. We mostly call him John but occasionally he gets called Doctor D’Eath. I did hear about the incident. I really don’t know what’s up with him. If you’d met him two years ago he was a different person because he always seemed a happy go lucky person but recently he’s been so grumpy. I think his time on the station is coming to an end. I don’t know why he’s changed so much I think it could be stress related.”

  “Maybe I should go over and try and patch things up, although I haven’t done anything wrong.”

  “Give it a go. It can’t do any harm.”

  I walked over to John at the bar and started the conversation.

  “Hi John, I think we got off to a bad start, perhaps we could agree to disagree and move on. What do you think?”

  “I don’t like you Roy, because I think you are half-cocked and a loose cannon. This station could do without mavericks like you. The first thing I’m going to do is see Gary and ask him never to put us on the same team. You’re a recipe for disaster.”

  Having tried to offer the Olive branch, I felt insulted and annoyed by his response, also I was confused as to what it had to do with Gary. “I didn’t know Gary had anything to do with assigning teams. I thought he was only a hairdresser.”

  “Not Gay Gary I meant Gary Pascoe.”

  “Wow, that’s an inappropriate comment to make. You shouldn’t go calling names behind anyone’s back.”

  “He’s gay and he’s called Gary so, to me, he’s Gay Gary.”

  “You can tell me I’m talking to a fool if you like, but I doubt you’d have the guts to say that to his face, so I think you should keep your homophobic name calling to yourself.”

  John leaned forward, “I’ll say what I like when I like. He’s gay and you’re a fucking idiot.”

  “We don’t call you fuckwit John behind your back, so lay off the insults.”

  “Or fat twat John,” came the voice of Adams. It was the first time Adams had ever spoken without being spoken to.

  “That’s enough Adams, he’s not fat just a bit porky.”

  “But fat twat sounds so much better than porky twat.”

  John leaned forward again and whispered to me “I’m going to get you. I’ll have you thrown off this station and then I’m going to have your computer crushed and put in the bin with the rest of the rubbish”

  I leaned a little closer and spoke quietly but firmly, “You’re full of shit John. You can’t do any of that which is why you’re a fuckwit.”

  John got up and stormed off and I walked back over to Claire.

  “How did it go?” she enquired.

  “Put it like this, I don’t think I will be getting a Christmas card from him this year.”

  *

  Gary Pascoe wandered over to Claire and I.

  “Congratulations Roy” and he held out his hand which I shook.

  “Thanks Gary and thank you for all your help.”

  “It’s not a problem Roy. When do you start your first shift?”

  “I’ve got a couple of day’s rest, so I’ll be starting on Wednesday.”

  “That’s great. Why don’t we meet Tuesday for a quick drink here? There will only be a few pilots here and it’ll be a little less crowded and a little less formal.”

  “Yeah, that sounds great. What time?”

  “About seven in the evening, if that’s OK?”

  “Fine with me, I’ll see you at seven.”

  Claire chuckled to herself.

  “Are you coming Claire?” I asked.

  “I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

  *

  When we got back to my apartment I tried to get Claire interested in playing one of my first person shooters but she played like a real girlie and was terrible at it and getting evermore frustrated losing. Even after she got more familiar with the controls she was still hopeless at playing the games.

  “So you played this a lot when you were a teacher?”

  “Yes, every night for as long as I could stay awake.”

  “And eat pizza and drink lager.”

  “Yes, except for Friday nights when I would get a take away curry.”

  “And you wonder why you never had a girlfriend?”

  The phone rang again and I picked it up. “Hello?”

  “Hello Roy.” I rolled my eyes realizing that it was mum, “I’ve been trying to call you for the last couple of days and you always seem to be out.”

  “Sorry Roy,” said Adams
“I was meaning to tell you that your mother had been phoning but we have been very busy.”

  “Who’s that with you Roy?”

  “Err... it’s my friend Adams.”

  “Put him on the phone and let me speak to him.” I held the phone down by my belt.

  “I hope you’ve been looking after my son, Adams.”

  “Yes Mrs. McCormack, I’ve made sure that he has been keeping out of trouble.”

  “And I hope you’ve kept him away from pizza and lager. He’s a bugger for that rubbish.”

  “Yes Mrs. McCormack. Over the last week he has consumed two pizzas and only one pint of lager.”

  “Well that makes a change and have you met his girlfriend?”

  “If you are referring to Claire then yes I have met her but it is my understanding that the relationship is purely platonic.”

  I could see Claire blushing and I bowed my head in embarrassment.

  “Well thank you for speaking to me Adams and keep on looking after Roy. Could you put my son back on?”

  I held the phone to my head “Hello mum.”

  “He seems a very nice person and what’s this about you and Claire being platonic? How can I have grandchildren if you only have a platonic relationship with women?”

  “Mum, please, there’s nothing wrong with being friends.”

  “Well it’s a good job your dad and I weren’t just friends isn’t it Roy.”

  “Too much information mum!”

  We spent a further couple of minutes on small talk and I told her I was still in South Africa. We said our goodbyes and as soon as I put the phone down Claire and Adams burst out laughing.

  “Adams, you’re laughing?” I said.

  “Of course, it was so funny,” he chuckled.

  *

  The following day I went with Claire for breakfast at Sam’s Bar. Crunching her toast, Claire swallowed and then asked “What do you want to do today?”

  “I’m not sure, I mean I don’t really know what’s available.”

  “Do you want to do something energetic or would you rather do something more relaxing?”

  “Ener, energic, energerical no, it’s no use I just can’t get my tongue round that one. So it’s definitely going to have to be the relaxing choice, especially after that exhausting pilot’s training.”