by T J Bryan
As Silvi talked the droid moved away and toward the bulkhead near the entry hatch. Moments later a portion of the bulkhead withdrew and a few seconds later the droid disappeared into the wall.
Chapter Nineteen
Jamon System - Nolo's Diner - Year 3245. June 27 ET: 06:30
Abel sat across the worn formica table as Emmitt and Helen drank another cup of weak coffee. Coffee supplies were growing thin and weak coffee was the result.
"This is wretched," Helen said placing her mug back on to the table.
"Indeed," Replied Emmitt suppressing a yawn.
Abel leaned forward. "This morning's meeting will take only a short time. You know about our plan for the freighter and for training crews?"
They both nodded, "Silvi, I mean Captain Karrlson, briefed us last night. We understand." Replied Helen. Emmitt nodded.
Abel continued. "Ok, we need a plan based on a few simple priorities. First we need to recruit an astrogator, or someone bright enough to be trained as one. The 1033 can never leave without the astrogation station manned. Second we need to get that freighter over here to the dock equipped with a replacement command comp." Abel paused a moment waiting for a reply.
Helen spoke first, "The freighter should be no problem. I visited both freighters three weeks ago. We are lucky Unity gave them such a low priority in their decommissioning plan. Command comps we can take from some of the more damaged ship's simulators. Not that it really matters given the number of ships in the zone. The command comps all seem to have pretty much the same serial number although the 'Mark' numbers vary a little. As for the astrogator, now that will be a problem. But let me first propose a way to train a crew with as little disruption and greatest speed as possible."
Abel nodded.
Helen continued, "There is in the supply ship inventory something called a combat training simulator. It's really just three simulators tied together to perform more complex flight evolutions for training crews for combat. Now we don't need the combat part, but each simulator can run independently and each type of ship within the Greayson fleet can be simulated. The combat training simulator, I'll call it the CTS for short, is shore based. We can bring it here and set it up in a nice warm place. Perhaps just off the dock where we will eventually place the freighter or at the Collegium. Then we recruit a crew, better yet we recruit enough for more seats than the CTS has, and we run the CTS 24/7. We look to Collegium students who are healthy and have attained the kinds of grades that would qualify them for the ship. We find the best we can and wash them hard. Wash out those not dedicated to the hard work required to master any given station. Wash out those who lack the skill attainment we know we need. Wash out those who lack the desire and drive. If we recruit say 100 of our best Collegium students then perhaps after a month or two we might have one or two good crews." Helen paused.
Emmitt spoke, "Captain Karrlson has us scheduled to go out at 11:00 so we can begin gathering the CTS and the command comps today. Bringing in the freighter will be tricky. I don't think she can be towed even with the 1033. We will probably need to power her up in place and bring her in. Silvi's crew can probably do that but we will have to rely on Larry or Lennie as pilot. One for the freighter and one for 1033. We still only have two, although Silvi has been spending some time warming the pilot's seat. Larry seems more focused in the last few weeks. Something is changing in the young man.
Helen interjected, "Larry is growing up, that's what is changing. However the issue is whether the command comp of the freighter will accept Larry at his current level. I suspect that Lennie will be accepted. At worst we need to work Larry up to a higher Pilot's rating. I'm not sure how long that will take, but certainly less than a month. Probably, knowing Larry, two weeks."
"Sounds like a start," said Abel. "But what about the astrogator? That's right at the top of the critical path."
Helen looked at Emmitt.
"Well astrogation is tricky and there are few minds that have the math, the spatial thinking, and the physics to even attempt it. In all my years teaching at the Collegium I have seen perhaps less than a dozen who might be able to do the work. Today there are three I can think of. No, perhaps four."
"And?" asked Abel.
Well first is Professor Ollon, he has the knowledge, especially of the quantum quirks that linger in the void and upset astrogators. Drives astrogators nuts that quantum theory. But Ollon is what Helen? About 140 years. Spry guy at that age and still very sharp. But."
Emmitt trailed off momentarily in thought and then resumed. "We have two grad students, PhD candidates, who might just might fit the bill. Taylor Schmidtt and Dilli Ketill. Both border on brilliant. Would you agree Helen?"
Helen nodded. "I am not entirely sure how the command comp certifies astrogators. The skills cannot be taught on a simulator. Astrogation requires a knowledge base that can be learned only after years and years of intensive training. I suspect that the command comp will test any applicant of their skills rather than try to train them before allowing them to serve on the crew. Just my guess, but there is no way you can learn astrogation in six months. It takes 10 years and only a very few ever achieve that level of success.
Abel returned to the issue of capable candidates, "And the forth? You mentioned a forth."
Helen spoke first. "It's Nomi Ketill. She is so smart that she scares me sometimes. I'm not joking about this Abel. She is scary smart. But Nomi is not suitable for a position as astrogator. Nomi clearly has the skills and knowledge, but no. Not Nomi."
"Why?" asked Abel.
"Well, she is fourteen years old for one thing."
"Ketill? Nomi is related to Dilli?" Abel asked.
Helen replied, "His younger sister. Dilli is what? Perhaps 25 years old now. Their mother and father died in the blow-out of. Dilli has raised Nomi from infancy. They are inseparable. They even made a place for Nomi in the student barracks at the Collegium so she and Dilli could stay together. That's how we learned about Nomi's remarkable skills."
"Can you explain a bit more Helen. 14 is way too young to recruit, but kids grow up and I am intrigued." Abel leaned back in his chair and waited for Helen to explain.
"At first there was faculty opposition to Dilli bringing in Nomi. When he entered the Collegium, Dilli was what? 19 or there about. Nomi was a small child. But Dilli's test scores were so high several faculty members threatened to quit if the Collegium did not accommodate both of them. At the end of one of the student barracks there was a disused supervisors office they converted to a tiny apartment to hold the two of them."
Helen paused a moment. "Nomi refused to go to school. Grade school. But we forced her to. It was a mistake. She was a holy terror in school and with the other kids. The teachers we overwhelmed. They gave up on her. Called her abnormal, autistic, simple minded. So they kicked Nomi out. Boy were they wrong. After a week or so Nomi started showing up in the Collegium lecture halls always sitting in the back row remaining silent and not bothering anyone. After a while she became as ubiquitous as a chair. Every day four or five classes mostly in Mathematics and Physics."
Emmitt interrupted. "I was there that day you know Helen. The day it happened."
"What?" asked Abel.
"It's hard to explain but I saw it with my own eyes. Nomi was about eleven and Professor Ollon was lecturing on Quantum theory to a handful of advanced graduate students. He was going through a particularly long and complex equation. When he finished Nomi stood up and said 'Your wrong. Your equation is wrong.' Then she sat down. Now Ollon is a great great grandfather and a rather kind old soul, so he decided to call Nomi up to the board to explain why he was wrong. The graduate students laughed a bit. Not an insulting laugh, but a laugh of genuine humor. After all an eleven year old child and a full Professor. It was kind of funny. I was sitting in the third row watching all this killing some time before a faculty meeting."
Emmitt paused and then continued. "Well, Nomi stood up and went to the board. She erased the entire equation. Th
ere was a bit more laughter. Then she took the stylus in her small had and wrote an entirely new equation. Two of the grad students laughed, but one did not. Nor did Professor Ollon. They just stared and didn't say a word. Finally Ollon spoke. It was the first time I ever heard him swear, but he did, and he has never uttered a curse word since. The proof Nomi had written was what the mathematicians call 'elegant' and it was provable. Correct. Just as Ollon was about to speak Nomi erased the board and wrote a simpler more elegant equation. I could not follow her work. It was too dense even though I'm in a related field. I watched Ollon. He just starred at the board. He didn't move. He just starred. Then Nomi go up and walked out of the lecture hall. Just like that."
...
Jamon System - Collegium Annex - Year 3245. June 30 ET: 11:20
Emmitt was installing the CTS system in the disused Collegium old basketball court now called the 'Annex', as Helen posted recruitment posters and interrupted every lecture and classroom to pitch for volunteers. Captain Karrlson had the crew stand down for the day as she suited up with Lennie and Larry to inspect the external shell of 1033. Silvi wanted to trust the MS diagnostics, but felt compelled to examine the hull herself. She had scheduled the next departure run for needed materials from the supply ship for the following day. Helen and Emmitt were becoming a critical path obstruction as was the search for an astrogator. Helen and Emmitt could hardly support the training program and remain on the crew of 1033. Yet they were critical to the upcoming flight to Girots.
The response to the recruiting effort had been overwhelming. Of the 4,500 undergraduates and the 7,000 graduate students nearly 60% volunteered. The Medical School had agreed to provide physicals for perhaps 400, but Dr. Auber had called Abel to say that giving all the volunteers health examinations was simply too many. Now the challenge was to sift thorough the volunteer list and select those for training. The task would not be easy and Abel had insisted that he personally interview each and every candidate who passed an initial set of tough screening criteria and passed the physical. Further Abel insisted on three 'assessments' to be provided on each candidate. Each assessment was to be written by a teacher, leader in the Collegium, or simply a close friend or associate. Abel was careful to say he did not want 'recommendations.' He wanted an assessment. In other words a list of pros and cons, not just glowing hyperbolic praise of a given candidate. After the quick screening process overseen by Helen, on criteria established by both Silvi and Abel, they still had a list of over one thousand prospects.
Running the CTS round the clock and working in three shifts a day Abel figured that perhaps 45 students could be accommodated in a given day. The eventual wash out rate for pilots he knew would be high, probably 90% and for the other position perhaps 60%. But Abel knew these were guesses, so on the side of being cautious, he wanted at least 100 students in the program hoping to wash out half of them within a few weeks.
Further he realized that the 1033 was now their only ship capable of travelling to and from the fleet. Quark was lost and the Queenies were simply too dangerous to fly. He needed another ship at least as backup to 1033 and eventually as a training ship as students advanced to the point that the simulator kicked them off and told them to report to the bridge for actual flight time. 1033 was not to be used for early crew training. Abel wanted Silvi and her crew out every day practicing ship handling and reinforcing ship skills. Supply runs to the fleet and servicing the distant miners was good practice. The boredom of everyday flight was a positive thing. It reinforced behaviours and honed skills. But eventually 1033 would need to venture further into the void and make practice runs on Giwiso the Jamon exit portal. Those trips would take time. Another training ship was needed.
Both Emmitt and Helen had agreed to stay on Silvi's crew for the extended training period and for the eventual trip to Girots. But they both wanted to return to their professorial duties when the trip was completed. By the time they returned Abel hoped that he would have trained replacements from the pool of volunteers.
Abel was thinking about walking out to the 1033 for a guilty lunch rather than eat from the restricted menu at the Collegium canteen, but before he could decide Helen appeared at the doorway of the tiny office he had borrowed at the annex. The office had once housed the basketball coach and its' walls were surrounded by pictures of previous intramural basketball teams. Some pictures were Abel estimated 160 years old. Helen carried about a dozen brown folders and placed them on the desk before Abel and sat down.
"I thought you might like to speak with Dilli Ketill. Will you be free in about an hour? Dilli is just finishing up some lab work and he is available."
"Yes," replied Abel. "Given the urgency of finding an astrogator, any time I have is a good time as long as it is now." Abel laughed.
"Good. I know he is anxious to speak with you. However anxious is the not the best descriptor. I think fearful might be a better word than anxious. Dilli lacks a lot of social skills, now don't get me wrong, he's not crazy or difficult or even unbalanced. He is just simple in his brilliance."
"Helen why don't you sit down and tell me more about Ketill before we speak."
"Ok, but I really don't have a lot to say. Like Emmitt I have observed both Ketill's but only from a distance. But I do understand, or I think I do, some of their habits and some would say odd behaviour."
"Odd behaviour?"
"Well not odd perhaps, but certainly different."
"Go ahead. I'm all ears," responded Abel.
"I can best relate their story by telling you of several incidents I personally witnessed. The one I found the most striking was when I visited their small quarters at the student barracks. It must have been three years ago, perhaps four. Dilli had been the teaching assistant for Professor Sloan for his Theory of Knots class and a student..."
Abel interrupted, "There is a theory of knots? And it's taught by a full professor?"
"Oh yes Abel. The mathematics are quite complex and rather unique. A mathematical knot is different that your half-hitch or granny knot in that it's ends are joined together and cannot be undone. Without belabouring the discipline and boring you with equations the topology of a mathematical knot is often mind boggling. And in a way the theory has a direct link to astrogation. The complexity of gravity wells, the portals with their entry and exit points, and certain aspects of quantum mechanics all have analogs in knot theory. I know this might be difficult to comprehend even for me, but one way of thinking about the portals and their entry and exit directions is to think of them grouped together. Like a long string tied in a very complex knot. That's where knot theory comes in. If you link systems and portals in astrogation it is called a knot line."
"Yes, yes. Now back to Dilli."
"Well a student who had not achieved the grade he felt he desired went to Professor Sloan to complain about his final exam. Professor Sloan asked me to take the exam papers over to Dilli and Nomi's place and ask Dilli, who had graded the exam, for a second look. Of course as a full Professor, Sloan never ever grades papers. That's for the TAs. It was about three in the afternoon and I arrived test in hand and found Dilli and Nomi in a furious argument. But not the kind of argument you or I might have."
Helen paused a moment. "Their quarters were spartan and clean, almost spotless, but three of the walls were covered in white boards and on those boards were countless equations. Dilli asked me to please sit while he made some tea. Nomi paid no attention to me at all but she was starring at one particularly long equation. She had a scowl on her face. About the time Dilli brought me my tea in a little pot with an empty cup, Nomi stood up and erased a portion of the equation and then filled in the empty space with her own addition. Then she sat down, crossed her arms, and huffed. Didn't say a word. Dilli stood and looked at the board. He didn't move for perhaps 15 minutes. My tea had gone cold. Then Dilli stepped to the board, or rather ran to the board and erased Nomi's work and then added another line or two. He sat down. Nomi just starred for perhaps five minutes and then
rushed to the board and erased the entire thing and composed another long equation. I know this sounds odd Abel but this went on for almost an hour before either of them remembered I was in the room. Dilli apologized and explained that he an Nomi were having a terrific argument and that he had forgotten me entirely. He then took a few moments to review the test papers and confirmed that the score was valid. Then he thanked me. As I went out the door I saw Dilli rush to the board and erase perhaps five expressions in the equation and substitute his own. Abel, in the hour or so I was there, the two never spoke a word to each other. It was strange. It was kooky. It was magnificent."
"And the other observation?" Abel asked.
"Dilli had a bad fall down the stairs at the Collegium library. He was taken to the hospital for treatment and was in an induced coma for almost a week. Seems he banged up his head. He recovered fully, but during that week someone had to look after Nomi who was perhaps ten at the time. I got tagged by Dilli's faculty advisor to take care of Nomi. Abel I have never in my life seen so sorrowful a child. Nomi had no friends. No peers. It seems that she wanted friends who were her equal but at her age, and in fact almost any age, no one was her equal. The sadness was made worse because she is basically non-verbal. She will speak a bit when spoken too, but rarely will initiate a conversation, and almost never carries one on beyond a sentence or two. But she was still a little girl with girlish wants and needs. Especially for friendship. But she simply found any potential friends as she said "boring and stupid." The other girls her age found her frightening and avoided her like the plague. Without Dilli around I fear for Nomi. She is now 14 at an age when girls have needs for companionship, want to do girl things, think about boys, play with makeup, learn to dance..." Helen Paused and then shrugged. "That about it."
"You once said she was so brilliant that she was frightening."
