Restoration

by Daniel C McWhorter

  “So, what do you do, Madeline?” Evan asked.

  “My full-time job is Chief of Biosystems but on this trip, I am also acting Cargo Master since we are short-handed.”

  “And what does the Chief of Biosystems do?”

  “Hmm, well I guess a simple answer is that my team and I ensure that all life support and gravimetric systems are functioning at peak efficiency and that all crew and passengers are safe and comfortable.”

  “So, you make the artificial gravity?”

  “No, engineering does that. We just monitor and maintain the gravity wave propagation systems to ensure consistent field strength throughout the habitat. We also ensure that any cross-sectional gravity shear is mitigated during and after jumps.”

  “That sounds complicated.”

  “It is. Our AI systems do most of the work but we get hands-on when we need to.”

  “Can I ask you how you make gravity? I thought you had to create centrifugal force, but the habitat doesn’t appear to spin.”

  She laughed, “That was how we did it until about ten years ago, it’s only recently that we’ve learned to shape the field generated by our gravity pulse drive.”

  The lift slowed suddenly and changed direction, which to Evan felt like up and down at the same time.

  “We just moved into the lower dorsal section of the ship,” Madeline explained. “We will be there shortly.”

  “Sorry, that’s just a little disorienting. The visual display indicates that we are moving down relative to the centerline of the ship but the gravity feels strongest at my head, which makes me feel like I am upside down.”

  “That’s normal. The center of gravity on this ship is the middle of the habitat ring, which is now above us. The farther we go, the less gravity you will feel. In fact, if you released your magnetic boots you would float slowly toward the ceiling.”

  “So, the engine is the gravity source?”

  “The drive core generates the gravitons but there are compensators built into the habitat that act as stabilizers. We can adjust the relative force of gravity for each deck by increasing or decreasing the intensity of the gravity waves radiating through the sub-floors. The overall size of the gravimetric field depends on energy output from the reactor core.”

  "I bet that takes a lot of power," Evan said.

  “It does, the bigger the field the more fuel we burn. We usually keep the central crew decks stay at around 90% of Earth’s gravity, with the outer habitat ring at around 40%. Where we are now is less than 30% and the shuttle bay will be about the same as Luna.”

  “Amazing, absolutely amazing.”

  “Yes, Doctor Feldman, we’ve come a long way in the last fifty years. You haven’t even seen the half of it!”

  That caught Evan off guard, he wasn’t expecting a complete stranger to know that he was not of this time. “You…you know who I am.”

  “Certainly, we have been planning for your arrival for several months now. Of course, you are a few weeks early but we have adjusted accordingly.”

  Evan felt the lift rapidly decelerate and come to a stop.

  “Ahh good, we’re here,” Chen said. “Shall we?”

  Chen stepped into the lift doorway and gestured for Evan to step past him into the hallway which he did.

  Madeline stepped into the lead. “This way, gentlemen.”

  Evan and Chen followed her down the hallway, with Evan taking up the rear as he struggled with the long, deliberate steps required to keep at least one boot firmly on the floor at all times. Thankfully, it was only a short distance to the airlock.

  “Don’t we need suits?” Evan asked.

  “Not for this trip. Everything is pressurized and there will be no significant acceleration. Certainly nothing that your nanosuit can’t handle,” Madeline replied.

  Evan wore the skintight synthetic silk nanosuit underneath his clothes from the flight to Luna. He had tried to take it off but Chen asked him to keep it on saying it was too much trouble to remove and it took too long for the nano-filaments to fully integrate with his nervous system. He’d also said something about the suit helping him to avoid serious disorientation and space sickness.

  “Well, I am glad to hear that,” Evan replied. “Are Adee and Yin coming?”

  “They are waiting for you on board the shuttle.”

  “Will we be eating soon? I am hungry again.”

  Madeline looked to Chen.

  “I am sure Adee will have a nice meal ready for us when we arrive on Ceres,” Chen said. “You won’t starve…I promise.”

  “Alright, let’s get you into the airlock and on your way,” she said.

  Madeline interacted briefly with a console near the airlock door. The massive door hissed open and yellow lights flashed rhythmically along the ceiling. She led Chen and Evan inside before tapping a virtual button on the holodisplay located just inside.

  The door hissed closed and Evan felt a slight popping in his ears as the pressure equalized with the shuttle craft waiting on the other side. The lights in the ceiling flashed green and the opposite door hissed open, revealing Yin leaning against the wall of the shuttle craft.

  She stepped forward and greeted the new arrivals with a friendly wave. “Good morning Evan, you will be glad to know that our adventure is nearly over.”

  “I can’t wait!” Evan replied.

  “I’ll take it from here. Thank you, Madeline,” Yin said.

  “Okay, I’ll see you later.”

  Madeline retreated back into the airlock and Yin reached behind Evan to tap on a wall-mounted console. The shuttle’s outer door hissed shut in sync with the airlock door. Evan felt his ears pop again as the shuttle’s inner airlock door slid open. Yin led them down the narrow hallway to a short flight of stairs.

  “Up we go,” she said.

  Evan stopped to look around when he reached the top stair. This craft was much smaller than the Telogene shuttle and came equipped with thickly padded seats instead of acceleration pods. There were five rows of six seats, with three seats on either side of a central walkway. The cockpit area was to his right, with another four seats arrayed along the front of the vessel. Adee was sitting in the second seat from the left.

  “Welcome aboard” Adee said as he swiveled his chair to face Evan. “You are feeling well, I trust?”

  “Fine, thanks. I got a little nauseous during the jumps but it was nowhere near as bad as when we left Luna.”

  “Good, I’m glad to hear it. We shouldn’t be jumping again anytime soon, so you should have plenty of time to get your space legs.”

  “You’ll have to explain how jumping works sometime. Madeline told me a little about the artificial gravity system and I found it fascinating. It’s almost like I went to sleep and woke up on board the USS Enterprise!”

  Adee laughed. “First Buck Rogers and now a Star Trek reference. I can see I will need to brush up on my pre-war history if I am to keep up with you.”

  “Hey, I’m impressed you know about Star Trek!”

  Adee smiled. “Oh yes,” he said. “Star Trek is very popular among my crews. In fact, we have regular screenings on every ship in the fleet. They can’t get enough of it.”

  “I can see why, they are living it!”

  “That and they find it fascinating to see what the future looked like a hundred years ago. You never know, one hundred years from now there may be a Federation of Planets and traveling across the galaxy at warp speed will be routine.”

  “We can only hope,” Chen added.

  “Well,” Adee continued, “shall we get underway? You can sit back there or up here with me, your choice.”

  “We’ll sit up front,” Chen said. “Here Evan, you sit next to Adee.”

  Chen led Evan to the chair to Adee’s right and helped him fasten his restraints. He took the chair to Evan’s right and Yin took the one to Adee’s left.

  “Here we go,” Adee said.

  Directly in front of Evan was a row of consoles with several hol
odisplays projected above each. Adee tapped an icon on his display and the front of the ship became transparent. As did the floor just in front of his feet and the walls to either side of him. Evan knew he was seeing a holographic projection, but it looked like the front of the ship had turned to glass.

  It reminded him of the time he and Christina had taken a helicopter tour in Hawaii—the front of the helicopter was a clear bubble that gave the pilot and passengers a 180-degree view. Instead of the magnificent volcanoes and canyons of Hawaii, Evan saw the inside of a shuttle bay and what appeared to be the dull gray surface of a planet directly below.

  “Is that Ceres?” he asked.

  “Yes, it is,” Adee replied. “Unlike Luna, Ceres has a thin atmosphere so there may be some minor turbulence as we descend. Are you ready?”

  “Ready as I’ll ever be,” Evan answered.

  Adee and Yin gestured simultaneously across their consoles, causing the shuttle to shift as the airlock and docking clamps retracted away from the ship. Adee made another series of gestures and the shuttle drifted downwards. The shuttle reversed direction once it was clear of Endeavor and Evan watched as the shuttle bay doors slid shut.

  “Ignition in three, two, one,” Adee called out.

  At the count of “one”, Evan felt the ship buck beneath him as the g-forces mounted, pulling him deeper into his seat. He glanced at the holodisplay in front of Adee and saw they were traveling at 1500 meters per second and were rapidly losing speed. The shuttle descended quickly and the big ship above them soon disappeared from view.

  Even though the shuttle had lost a lot of the speed imparted to it by Endeavor, the surface of Ceres still rushed beneath them at a rapid pace. Since they were facing the opposite direction of travel, Evan found it somewhat disorienting to watch the moon’s surface move away from them rather than toward them.

  “Any chance we can get an aft view?” he asked.

  “Yes, of course. One second,” Adee replied.

  A second later the view around Evan shifted, and he noticed an extremely large object in the sky directly ahead and above them.

  “Is that Endeavor?” Evan asked.

  “No, my friend, that is Kutanga!” Adee said with a note of excitement in his voice.

  “What is the Kutanga?”

  “It is a ship…my ship. The largest and fastest space-going vessel ever assembled by man.”

  “Bigger than Endeavor?”

  “Oh yes, by several times. Endeavor is 587 meters long, Kutanga is 1482 meters,” Adee beamed proudly.

  “How many people can it carry?”

  Adee took a second to decide how he wanted to answer.

  “Well, it depends,” he finally said.

  “Depends on what?” Evan asked.

  “The Kutanga wasn’t built to carry large numbers of people in the traditional sense and yet it can carry thousands.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “Soon, my friend. Soon,” Adee responded.

  “You know, I sure have heard that a lot these last couple of days and I am getting pretty damn tired of it. You people need to start telling me what’s going on…or you can just take me back to Earth and let me deal with the authorities there!”

  Chen reached over and placed his hand on Evan’s shoulder.

  “That’s not going to happen, Evan, please stay calm,” he said.

  “And why not? If you can get me here this fast, you can certainly take me back just as quickly!”

  “No, we can’t. There is no turning back now…not for any of us.”

  “It’s time to tell him, Chen,” Yin said. “I’m calling them up.”

  “Calling who?” Evan asked.

  Chen returned his hand to the armrest of his chair. “Lily and Dylan,” he said.

  Evan wasn’t sure he heard Chen correctly. “Who?”

  “Lily and Dylan…your daughter and son-in-law,” Chen replied.

  “Okay, Chen, I’ve had absolutely enough. What the hell are you talking about?”

  “Alright but they have to move quickly,” Adee replied to Yin. “My re-entry burn is in three minutes.”

  Nearly a minute went by without a word from anyone until Evan finally broke the silence.

  “You people are out of your minds. What are you trying to do to me?”

  An unfamiliar voice sounded from behind Evan. “He’s talking about us, Dad.”

  Evan spun his chair around to see a young man and a woman standing at the top of the stairs, both breathing heavily as though they had just run a 100-meter dash.

  “Who are you people?” he demanded. “And where did you come from?”

  “I am your daughter, Lily Alice Feldman,” the woman replied. “And this is my husband, Dylan Ryan Harris.”

  “It’s great to see you again, Evan,” the man said. “It’s been a very long time.”

  “I don’t know what kind of trick you all are pulling but I’ve had enough. What is the point of all of this? What is the point of any of this? This can’t be real!”

  Lily took a few steps forward. “Come sit with us, Dad. I will explain everything while we finish our descent to Galilei Station.”

  “Go ahead, Evan,” Chen encouraged. “It’s time you know the full truth.”

  Evan gazed at the two people standing in front of him, neither bore any resemblance to the Lily and Dylan he remembered.

  “These people look nothing like Lily and Dylan. How can it be them?” he asked Chen.

  “The same way you can look nothing like the old you. I promise Evan, it’s really them.”

  “Ninety seconds to burn,” Adee called out. “Make up your mind, Evan. If you are going to change seats—now is the time.”

  Evan released the restraints holding him in his chair and rose unsteadily to his feet. His magnetic boots held firmly to the deck, but there was nothing for him to hold on to. The two strangers stepped forward, and each took an arm to support him. The three crossed the short distance to the first row of seats and Evan took the aisle seat, with Lily in the middle and Dylan on the opposite end.

  “Thirty seconds,” Adee called.

  Evan activated his restraints and the strangers quickly followed suit.

  “Are you really my daughter?” Evan asked.

  “Yes, Dad, I really am,” Lily answered. “How can I prove it to you?”

  “What was the last thing I said to you?”

  Lily pondered that for a moment.

  “Ten seconds,” Adee announced.

  “You don’t know, do you?”

  “Yes, I do. It’s just weird the way you asked the question.”

  “Oh and why is that?”

  “Because you didn’t say anything. You couldn’t talk. You blinked one time for yes when I asked if you would tell Mom I love her,” she said.

  “Ignition!”

  The shuttle’s engines roared to life, sucking everyone deep into their seats as the craft made its final descent. Evan’s eyes welled up and a single tear rolled down his cheek. He reached for Lily’s hand and she took his in return.

  Evan’s voice shook and was barely audible over the shuttle’s roaring engines. “I…I thought you were dead.”

  Lily leaned over and wrapped her arms around his neck.

  “I know, Dad…I’m sorry for that.”—Lily’s eyes filled with tears—“I thought I had lost you forever.”

  CHAPTER 31

  APRIL 6, 2075 7:32 AM GST

  Mars-Ceres Transition

  Lieutenant Commander Luanne Wilkes peered over her pilot’s shoulder to look at the holodisplay floating in front of him.

  “How long, Ryan?” she asked.

  “Five hours plus or minus ten,” Chief Petty Officer Ryan Randolph replied.

  Luanne checked the time indicator on the display. Ryan’s time estimate would put them in orbit around Ceres somewhere between 12:20 and 12:40 GST.

  “Can we afford another jump?” she asked.

  “Not if you want to be able to stop when we
get there. We are already at the upper range of our delta-v limit.”

  “When is the first decel pulse?”

  Ryan made a few gestures across his console. “First deceleration in twenty-seven minutes and thirteen seconds.”

  “Steady as she goes then.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  Luanne moved to return to her seat at the back of the ship.

  “Lu?” Ryan asked.

  “Yes?”

  “Just wondering if you and Sam have figured out what the hell we're supposed to do when we get there yet?”

  “We’re still working on it, Ryan but I will let you and the rest of the team know just as soon as we do.”

  “Understood, thanks.”

  Luanne disengaged her magnetic boots and used one foot to push off the back of Ryan’s chair. She had ordered a rest period after Captain Bachmann aborted their planned stopover on Mars and everyone was secured in their pods trying to catch up on their sleep except her, Ryan and Master Chief Samuel Washington. Luanne floated past her team toward the rear of the ship where she and Sam had been reviewing the Kutanga’s technical data and trying to formulate some kind of workable plan.

  Twelve hours ago, Bachmann had ordered Alpha and Bravo teams to proceed to Ceres, disable the Kutanga and take the fugitives Feldman, Hao, Lu and now Gbadamosi into custody. For the past eight hours, Luanne had received regular updates from the various AI systems that were analyzing the events of the past two days and trying to anticipate what her adversaries would do next.

  Emma, Luanne’s tactical AI, was working to finalize an operational plan using both assault and stealth mission profiles. Given the numerous advantages held by the other side, Luanne hoped that a viable stealth plan was in the offering. When she reached the back of the ship, she grabbed one of the handrails and planted her re-energized mag-boots on the floor next to Sam.

  “How’s it going?” she asked.

  “I just finished reviewing the last update from the GSSA AI. It looks like most, if not all, of our principles are clones.”

  “No shit?”