Obsidian Ressurection

by T J Bryan

  Silvi was about to object again but Abel interrupted. "Silvi what is your role on 1033."

  Silvi had an embarrassed look, "Well, I guess I'm the captain."

  Abel replied, "No Silvi, you are the Captain and it is critical for you and your crew that you assume the full responsibility and indeed the awful burden of that position. Do you understand?"

  Silvi stared at Abel for a long moment, "Yes Sir. I understand. I am the Captain of 1033."

  "Thank you Captain Karrlson. I will bunk down with Emmitt this evening. I'll see you in the morning."

  "Yes Chief," Silvi replied as she entered the Captains quarters only to find a pile of what was still called 'paper work' awaiting her on the captains comp.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Jamon System - 1033 - Year 3245. June 25 ET: 06:30

  Abel rose before Emmitt and headed to one of the two shower stations on the ship and after a brief shower donned a fresh ship suit and headed for breakfast. Emmitt was waiting for his turn at the shower as Abel exited. Abel was going to miss his private shower. He was the second to arrive at the mess. Silvi had obviously been there for some time; her breakfast finished, a steaming cup of coffee that Abel doubted was her first, and her inter-tab in her hand. She was so focused on reviewing another check list that she failed to notice Abel. Several volumes of various POO's lay open next to her inter-tab. Abel saw that the buffet section of the mess had been laid out again and as he began to fill his plate with eggs over-easy, toast, near-potato hashbrowns, and other necessities for starting an early morning. He wondered about the mess. In the Greayson Navy there must be something special about breakfast. A buffet in the morning and then single servings at lunch and dinner from the food station? Perhaps breakfast was used by Greaysons as a gathering and bonding meeting of a small crew. There was something about the shared experience of a buffet and sitting and eating with one another at the start of a day of working together. Abel thought he would have to discuss with Helen more about Greayson psychology.

  "Have a good night?" Abel asked of Captain Karrlson.

  Silvi looked up noticing Abel for the first time. "Yes. Slept like a babe."

  Abel laughed. He knew she was lying, but she was captain now, and, well, sleepless nights came with the position.

  "Going over today's evolutions?" Abel asked as Emmitt and then Helen entered the mess and proceeded to the buffet.

  "Yes."

  Silvi returned her attention to her inter-tab.

  Emmitt and Helen sat down.

  "The Chief snores," said Emmitt. Emmitt laughed. "Actually the Chief does not snore, he sings the night away." Everyone but Silvi laughed. She was still intent on her inter-tab.

  Funny thought Abel, now that Silvi is Captain Karrlson everyone, even his old friends Helen and Emmitt, now referred to him as Chief. Well, that's the effect of a warship like 1033. The ship frames all aspects of human interaction out here in the void.

  Larry, Lennie, and Buddy arrived moments later and piled high their plates with breakfast. Young metabolisms thought Abel. He began to think of each one of the three. They were at that midpoint between being kids, teens that is, and adults. Serious and responsible sometimes, and then stupid and irresponsible at other times, yet here on the ship much of their teen behaviour was gone. Lennie was now almost nineteen, and Larry had just had a birthday and was all of eighteen years old. Abel was unsure of Buddy's age, but since he was in the same class at middle school with Lennie, and about the enter the Collegium, he was probably nineteen as well.

  Abel recalled something he had read somewhere but he could not recall: ' Older men declare war. But it is youth that must fight and die."

  Compared to these kids I am an old man, but then again they are not kids anymore. Soon, very soon, they will be adults in the most extreme sense, for if anyone was going to make it to Girots system and return with the supplies to save the Commonwealth it would be those sitting here at the mess table with me.

  As Emmitt and Helen returned their plates to the station labelled 'cycler' Silvi put down her inter-tab. She leaned back in her chair and surveyed the room and then her crew. Abel was the only one who noticed her intense stare travelling from crew member to crew member and finally landing on Abel. She did not divert her stare for a good while and then she stood. Abel thought she must be evaluating her crew, just as I did moments ago. Silvi is going to be a fine captain.

  When all the breakfasts had been finished and the plates and cups disposed of in the cycler, Silvi stood. Immediately everyone else including Abel stood as well.

  "Shall we begin our journey?" Captain Karrlson asked without expecting a response. Then she turned, left the mess, entered the command station and sat into the Captain's chair. The others followed and assumed their stations.

  "All stations confirm your check lists," Silvi said in a firm voice so everyone could hear.

  Helen responded, "All well at EM"

  Then Emmitt at the MS, followed by each station ending in Lennie confirming the readiness of the pilot's station.

  "Prepare to cast off."

  Lennie repeated the command, "Preparing to cast off. Thirty seconds. On your mark."

  Abel saw Silvi quickly look about the station. She bit her lip a sign of nerves that only Abel noticed. Then straightened her shoulders. "Mark." she said.

  "Casting off in 30, 29, 28,..." Lennie began to count down. Moments later Abel felt a slight nudge and a tiny bit of acceleration. "We are off and clear Captain."

  "Proceed to open manoeuvring position."

  Lennie responded, "Proceeding to open manoeuvring position now."

  Abel felt the ship gently move away from the dock. He was going to watch Lennie's instruments, but the view of the void and the Jamon system took his breath away and he lost all interest in the gauges, dials, and displays that held Lennie's total focus and attention. We are actually underway in a ship long dead; 200 years dead.

  The 1033 headed out across the ecliptic plane and away from the mining stations. Abel felt only a slight acceleration but according to the instruments on Lennie's panel they were accelerating now on reaction engines at about 20G's. Gravity compensators Abel knew. How they worked he did not know, or need to know, but if they were not there he would be jelly on the deck. The command con was silent. Any talk was all business. There were not jokes, or teen pranks. The 1033 was alive and they were its' crew.

  After five hours the gravimetric reading fell below 0.08 gravitons. They had chosen a course perpendicular to the ecliptic orbit of Jamon's various gravity wells and while there was little of interest on this plane of the system they were now well away from any limiting system gravity wells. Time to test the GWP he thought.

  Silvi rose from her captain's chair. "Everyone on rotation take a three minute break. Everyone back in fifteen. Chief you have the bridge."

  Abel stood up from his jump seat, "Captain Karrlson I have the bridge," he responded and moved to the Captain's chair. Silvi left for her quarters to what Abel guessed was to relieve herself and calm her nerves.

  Soon the crew had returned to their stations and Captain Karrlson assumed the bridge. Moments later they began the procedure for engaging the GWP system.

  First Emmitt ran a full diagnostic scan of the entire ship. There were still some urgent but no critical items on the deferred maintenance list but the list was much shorter now. Then he ran another set of diagnostics against the GWP system itself and reported that all was well and within parameters.

  The plan was to engage the GWP system at a low setting of 1000 gravities off the bow of the 1033 and plunge into the well for thirty seconds. Lennie calculated that their maximum speed would be about 0.06 of the speed of light. Abel did a quick calculation in his head. That would be about 1,800,000 metres per second. Very fast but no where near as fast as the 1033 was designed to travel. They would continue to travel or coast for half an hour while they re-ran diagnostics. Then they would reverse course, apply the GWP again and decelerate back to the
ir initial departure position. The whole process was expected to last about 12 hours. The bulk of that time was taken by traversing the Jamon system under reaction jectors to be free of the gravimetric restraints on the GWP, but also due to caution and the need to frequently run GWP diagnostics and review check lists. Captain Karrlson was taking no chances and Abel was certain that the entire crew agreed.

  The GWP evolution had been run uneventfully. Except for four hours of intense tension the ship and more importantly the crew had performed flawlessly. As the ship resumed reaction propulsion Abel gave thought to how he would explain 1033 to the Chairman. The Chairman, the council, and the entire Commonwealth would insist that they depart for Girots system immediately. But Abel knew that more training of this inexperienced, but talented crew was needed. Perhaps not weapons and defence, but simple time in flight. In addition they needed an astrogator and Abel had no idea how to find someone who could fill that position. Perhaps Helen did, but without an astrogator, and one with some basic experience and the brains to do the math, the 1033 was going nowhere. Without an astrogator they were quite likely to fall into a hole and never return.

  Abel stood and stretched and once again found himself captured by the 360 degree view of the void. In the distance was a sparkle he knew was the Habitat. They were still 4,000 kilometres out but Abel could feel the tension breaking on the bridge. All except Lennie who rigidly sat at the pilots station and never took his eyes off the displays and vid screens.

  Captain Karrlson also rose. "Ok listen up," she said. "Everyone take three on rotation, back here in 15."

  Lennie as Pilot was first in the rotation of Buddy and Larry. Lennie rose reluctantly but Abel could see he really needed to go to the toilet. Lennie hurried to the passageway and Larry sat in the pilots seat.

  Silvi remained. Probably deciding to watch Larry for a moment before she herself took a short break thought Abel. Emmitt stood and headed toward the passage following Lennie.

  "Hey guys, I got something!" shouted Buddy from the defence station. "It's a distress. Someone's in distress."

  Captain Karrlson leaned toward the defence station. Lennie came rushing back to the pilots station and Larry stood and returned to weapons.

  "What is it Mr Brunner?" Asked the Captain in as calm a voice as Able knew she could muster.

  'Mr. Bruner' Abel heard. Silvi was already slipping into 'captain speak.'

  "It's Quark. It's Quark." repeated Buddy. "She's sending out a distress."

  "Get the coordinates Mr Brunner. Tell her we're coming. The 1033."

  "Yes sir," replied Buddy with an intensity on his face Abel had never seen before.

  Buddy continued fighting to control his voice. "18.765 off the ecliptic, 130.654 off Jamon axial, 6,065.2 kilometres from our station. She is travelling about 1401.02 KPS. On that course she will gain at least one degree off the ecliptic every 60 minutes and about 2.1 degrees off Jamon axial. Hull integrity intact."

  Lennie turned toward his sister now Captain.

  "Set in the course Pilot Karrlson," she said.

  "Mr. Brunner confirm to Quark we are coming to their aid."

  "Yes sir, " replied Buddy turning his attention again to the defence station and picking up the mic. Abel could hear Buddy call Quark and inform them that 1033 was coming to their aid and they were about 30 minutes out. Abel could not entirely hear Quark's response as Lennie confirmed the coordinates and the apparently uncontrolled direction of Quark. But what Abel did discern was panic on Quark and confusion as to who was coming to their aid.

  Abel was about to say something, but Captain Karrlson spoke. "Mr. Brunner, keep them talking. I want an exact condition report. What is their problem? How many souls on board? Are there injured?"

  "Yes sir," replied Buddy again turning his attention to his station.

  "Confirming Quark location, direction and calculating intercept now," Abel heard Lennie shout as the reaction engines began to throttle to life. The volume of the engines which had previously been a mild babble now turned into a dull roar which made speaking and hearing difficult. Abel could see Buddy talking to the Quark but no longer could overhear the conversation.

  "I have status Captain. On the Quark," yelled Buddy above the dull roar of the reaction jectors.

  Captain Karrlson nodded to Buddy. "Quark has a jammed jector and is accelerating and spinning. Tumbling actually in all three axis. They cannot shut down the jector. 18 souls on board with injuries to eight. Two serious and life threatening. Burns mostly and broken bones. They are asking who we are? What should I tell them?"

  Silvi looked at Abel for direction on what to say. Abel thought a moment. The secret of 1033 was over. They were about to be discovered.

  Abel shouted, "Just tell them 1033 is coming and keep asking for status updates. Lets keep them focused on their own ship rather than ours."

  Buddy looked at the Captain and she nodded. Buddy resumed his conversation with Quark.

  Abel realized that the lack of an astrogator would have made this rescue very dangerous. There was a lot of junk to fly through here on the ecliptic of Jamon and it all had to be done on reaction engines and thrusters. Filling the position of astrogation was becoming an urgent need.

  Buddy shouted again, "I have Quarks tumbling stats."

  The Captain replied, "Ok, Mr. Brunner give us the stats."

  Abel could see Lennie's shoulders tighten as he began to aggressively manoeuvre 1033.

  Buddy yelled against the increasing volume of the jector engines. "X 0.4 KPS starboard, Y 1.1 KPS forward, Z 0.003 high."

  "Shit" Abel heard Lennie say.

  Abel knew that any tumble was bad, but a tumble on all three axis was a disaster. Docking with a tumbling ship and taking on crew was impossible. And with a jammed jector the rate of acceleration increasing the tumble was inevitable. It was a miracle that only 8 were injured. But Abel was certain that before this was over more would need medical attention, or at worse the Habitat's coroner. That is if they could even capture Quark.

  Abel heard the Captain, "Mr. Brunner, how much reaction mass does Quark have remaining?"

  Abel knew that at the speed Quark was accelerating and her distance from the Habitat she would surely be low on fuel. Perhaps even running out of the water she needed for the jectors.

  Moments later Buddy called out, "Quark has 135 litters."

  Silvi thought a moment and Abel could see her calculating in her head. "If the only jector running is the jammed one and they can't shut it down they will be empty in three minutes."

  Abel heard Lennie shout, "Three and sixteen seconds."

  Silvi nodded in agreement.

  Buddy kept talking to Quark and Abel could feel 1033 as she dogged and jigged around rocks, asteroids, a small planetoid, and fields of ice crystals. 1033 seemed to be all over the ecliptic at once and when Abel looked at the vid screens the danger was all too evident. Abel forced himself to break his gaze and again focus on the crew and their captain.

  Buddy began to shout as 1033 took a sharp jig and they all heard a loud thump to starboard.

  "Ouch" said Larry from the weapons station.

  "Status Mr. Wong," called Silvi.

  Emmitt ran collision diagnostics and called out. "Minor collision on starboard plate DF65a. No significant damage. Hull has full integrity. Maint is calling for a normal status maintenance by droid to be performed any time within the next refit period." Emmitt looked up. "A refit period is anywhere from six months to two years so I sure were ok for now."

  "Status Mr. Brunner?" Silvi asked.

  "Quark is out of water. Her jector is down. She is no longer accelerating but we have new tumble and speed coordinates."

  "Let's hear them Mr. Brunner."

  "Quark speed now 1,639.4 KPS stable. No acceleration. Tumble is; "X 0.6 KPS starboard, Y 1.1 KPS forward, Z 0.003 high."

  This time Lennie did not react to the bad news. He just stayed focused.

  The change in the tumble was minor but still Abel ha
d no idea how they could attempt a rescue. Perhaps the crew could throw themselves into space to be collected, but that would be insane. At their rate of tumble, if the spinning ship did not hit them in the first microsecond, then after being scattered in all directions, their ten minute O2 supplies would fail them. Not to mention the injured.

  The bridge remained silent against the background roar of the reaction engines. Dodging and jigging had lessened as they entered a less crowded plane of the ecliptic and soon Lennie shouted out, "I need the helm Captain."

  Silvi replied "You have the helm Pilot Karrlson."

  Abel realized that the complex manoeuvring needed to pull of a stunt like this rescue made it impossible for Lennie to call out what he was going to do and for the captain to grant permission. Lennie was in for real seat of the pants flying. The helm, indeed the ship, was all his.

  "Status Mr. Brunner?" called out the Captain.

  "No change, but Quark is no longer talking. They have gone silent."

  Centrifugal force must be horrendous thought Abel.

  Lennie was furiously manipulating the ships controls and Abel was able to feel tiny jerks and bumps as the ship decelerated and began to close on Quark.

  "We will be on Quark in five." Lennie shouted. "I have the helm."

  Silvi nodded but everyone was so busy none noticed.

  Abel stared out the vid screen in the direction he thought Quark lay. But at this distance still kilometres away Quark was too tiny to see.

  A few moments later, although to Abel it seemed like hours, a tiny spec appeared off to the left of where he thought Quark was.

  "Mr. Wong, Illuminate the Quark please," said Silvi.

  "Yes Captain, Illuminating now."

  A glowing yellow circle appeared on the vid screen surrounding the tiny dot. Moments later the dot began to grow in size. Abel looked again at Lennie and Lennie's furious motions and jerking had ceased and his hands and feet on the controls seemed to move slowly and cautiously. A gentle nudge on the stick, a slight push on the jector control at his feet. Still Lennie remained totally focused on the vid screen at his station. The magnificent view on the bridge bulkhead vid screen he ignored.