by Max Swan
“I’ve projected the current course of Ship, and you’ll need to make some corrections. Ships current course will see her pass five hundred kilometers from the surface of Sol, in about nine standard days. I’ve calculated the needed corrections to alter Ships course to approach Earth from the dark side of the Moon. I’m sending them to you now.” Paul began working the console in front of him, and in moments Dexter began studying the data.
Dexter turned and looked at Nadir. “Sir?”
Nadir didn’t look at him, but waved his hand saying, “That’s fine, make the adjustments, Mr. Crimpson.”
Dexter entered the data into his console. After activating the intercom to Enginelab, he said loudly, “Attention Captain Blake, standby for a thruster burst in t-minus ten seconds and counting.” Not long after a loud burst of thruster fire could be heard in the Bridge, followed by a small jolt as Ships course altered. After the thrusters stopped firing, Paul began working on his console in the shuttle.
He looked up and smiled briefly. “Course correction confirmed.”
Nadir stood, speaking in a steady low-pitched voice. “Major, I want you and the Captain to head to Earth immediately. We need more information, and that’s the only place we’ll find it.”
Paul went to speak, but Barrett beat him to it. “Sir, we’ve been in this shuttle for hours now. Couldn’t we come back and freshen up first?” She looked at Paul screwing her nose up slightly.
Nadirs face blanched for a moment, through clenched teeth he said, “Captain Barrett, I’ve given you a direct order. If you return to Ship, I’ll have you freshening up in the brig. Do I make myself clear?”
This time Barrett started to reply, but Paul cut her off, giving her an evil look as he did. “Ah, we understand, Colonel. Besides, there’s a privy on the shuttle. So I’m sure we can work something out. I’ll get under way immediately, and contact you once we reach Earth.”
Nadir nodded tightly. “Good, and hopefully we’ll have few more systems working by then. Use your stealth mode, to be on the safe side.”
“Yes, sir, good idea,” Paul replied.
“Oh, and Major, please don’t do anything rash. If we’ve gone back in time as you say, then interfering with the past could have profound repercussions for our time.”
“Understood, sir. We’ll be in touch,” Paul said, and the connection terminated.
*****
Paul laughed to himself as he began to calculate their course and speed to reach Earth in the next twelve hours. The shuttle had a small qdrive so it could reach considerable speeds as a result making them perfect for solar system travel. A qdrive is an engine that concentrates gravitons in its core to create an intense gravity well. Using a geodetic field manipulator to bend the gravity well provides propulsion and power. The gravity well is projected in the direction the vessel wants to go making it literally fall in that direction. The more intense the gravity well the faster the fall, the less intense the slower. A person travelling in a small vessel like a shuttle that uses a qdrive, always has the sensation they are falling. Like the astronauts of old in the first orbits of Earth. Moving the gravity well behind the vessel will slow it, or create a counterbalance with any native gravity from a large orbiting body.
Paul turned to Barrett shaking his head. “What a stupid thing to say. I’m surprised he acted so cool about it.”
Barrett’s eyes bulged momentarily. “If you call threatening to throw me in the brig ‘cool’.”
Paul shrugged half-heartedly. “Oh, that isn’t a threat.” Barrett felt his words quicken her heart and give her butterflies, but she tried to act as if she didn’t care. She leant back looking at her console blankly. “I’ve served under Colonel Nadir for nearly six years. This trip is what, your third mission with him? I don’t think I need you to tell me what he’s like.”
Paul smiled stifling a laugh. “So tell me, in the last six years how many recon missions have you done?” She didn’t answer, choosing to stare down at her console and kind of look at him only moving her eyes. “I thought so,” Paul said after a while.
She erupted. “Just because you go gallivanting around the galaxy in a drunken stupor, causing more harm than you actually solve. Then boasting about it so weak-minded women will fall at your feet, with their legs spread. You naturally think you’re better than everyone else. Typical fucking Greeter!”
A tense silence filled the shuttle as Paul finished laying in their course for Earth. Once he activated it, he put the shuttle into automatic pilot, undid his seat belt, and stood stretching. Barrett continued to look into her lap, her face still bright red.
“I am going to use the privy to freshen up. Give me a yell, if there’s any problems,” he said evenly.
She didn’t look at him, “Sure.”
“Oh, and there’s food and water in one of those storage compartments I suggest you take a break too. The autopilot will do everything for now. Maybe even take a nap on one of those benches. I think I will,” he added.
She nodded. Paul left her for the cramped privy, it had wet wipes he could use to clean himself all over. He felt the Colonel is acting more grouchy than usual, but he couldn’t blame him. First someone had tried to kill them, second his Ship is in tatters, and now this. Paul only hoped they could get enough of Ship working again to at least somehow get them out of this mess. However, his instincts were telling him things would get much worse before it even begins turning in their favor.
*****
Nadir sat looking glum. “Looks like your decision to join this trip may be one you turn out to regret, Mr. Crimpson.”
“I think it’s one we’ll all regret, Sir,” Dexter looking down at his console blankly. Nadir felt knots in his stomach as he willed himself to try to say what is on his mind. Dexter stood there silently, feeling the tension coming from his commander.
Nadir sat up and took a deep breath. “Look, I was out of line in the carriage earlier today. I’m sorry.”
Dexter looked him dead in the eyes. “No, you’re not. However, I can agree to put aside our differences for now, so we can work together efficiently. If that’s agreeable with you?”
Nadir considered the Brainiac’s response for a moment tapping his finger on the arm of the chair as he did. “Very well, I can live with that. But if you have any ideas that could help us, I’d really like to hear them.”
“Well I do have one at the moment. We could send out a couple of recon-drones to shadow Ship. We can receive their telemetry via the communications hub, and use them as a temporary replacement for sensors. They won’t have the range that Ships sensors do, but it’s better than nothing,” Dexter said.
Nadir nodded thoughtfully feeling relieved. “Good idea, get on it right away.” He had his prejudices against Brainiac’s, as all Keepers did, but when situations got dire it’s always a relief to have them around.
Suddenly, Lieutenant Huang appeared on the main monitor, hair disheveled and grease on her face. “Sir, sorry to interrupt, but I’m at the sensor array and I think you had better come here.”
“What’s the problem, Lieutenant?” Nadir asked. What else can go wrong, he thought?
“Someone has destroyed it, Sir,” she said.
Nadir closed his eyes for a moment, he felt as though a headache is coming on. He opened his eyes and looked at the monitor. “Very well, I’ll be down there shortly.” The Lieutenant nodded and her picture vanished off the monitor. Then he turned to Dexter saying, “Mr. Crimpson, get those recon-drones out as there soon as you can.”
Dexter turned to Nadir and said, “Yes, sir.”
*****
Nadir suddenly melded into Ship feeling her warmth surround him and soothe him. A welcome relief flooded through his being as he felt her love melt all his tension.
“Be careful, my love, there’s danger,” Ship said to him
“What danger?” he asked her knowing she senses everything that happens inside her.
“He is cunning,” she whispered.
“I don’t understand?” Nadir said.
“He wants death, he craves death, he will kill us all to get death,” she warned.
“Is it Goddard?” Nadir asked softly, knowing that Goddard is considered potential suicidal risk by the shrinks on Bolaris.
“He’s looking this way,” Ship said, leaving Nadir feeling astonished as his body suddenly emerged from a wall near the sensor array. Nadir paused to catch his breath, not really understanding why Ship is being so vague about everything. He wondered whether maybe all the recent strain she has had to endure may be to be blame.
Suddenly he heard Lieutenant Huang yell, “Colonel, over here.”
He felt reluctant to go to her still reeling from his conversation with Ship but he collected himself as best he could and turned, walking toward the Lieutenant giving her a stiff smile.
As he reached her he said, “So what’s this all about, Lieutenant?”
The Lieutenant looked a mess, but mostly she looked exhausted, having worked non-stop since they exited the void some seven hours ago. “Sir, it’s over here,” she said turning and indicating for him to follow.
The sensor array is a highly intricate instrument. Where the Colonel and Lieutenant Huang stood now is where the main hub of it is housed, located under Enginelab. From this hub, thousands of metallic tendrils wrapped around Ship under her outer hide like nerves. Turning the outer hull of Ship into one big satellite dish. The hub could send out microwaves, magnetic waves, delta radiation waves that act similar to what sonar does in water, and radar. The sensor hub enabled the crew of Ship to see what is around them, up to a range of half a million kilometers.
At the outer limit of that range, sensors were far less accurate and were used more to detect vessels far away. It could also detect radiation, light waves, gravity, gases, dust, minerals, chemicals and many other substances useful to not only help make Ships journey through space safer, but helped crew study the many solar systems in the Milky Way Galaxy. EMC crew often called it the ‘spider’, as it resembled a giant spider with a large oval copper colored body that had conduits coming out like giant spider legs. These conduits held the tendrils of sensor wires that went all over ship. Around the sensor array stood several workstations used to monitor functions, and keep the instruments calibrated and accurate.
Lieutenant Huang stopped at one of the dead stations and bent over picking up an axe off the floor. She then held it out to the Colonel, “I found this lying among the debris here. Naturally, there’s damage caused by the gravity waves, like this.”
She picked up a cracked circuit board off the dead station and showed him with one hand. “But the majority of the damage here has been caused by this axe,” she said holding out the axe with the other. He looked around to see all of the stations had been smashed, and the conduits had been cut from the main orb. The orb had frightening looking cuts where circuitry hung out still sparking sometimes. Nadir felt amazed, it would’ve taken much strength to cause this much damage with only an axe. He took the axe and examined it. He could see nothing extraordinary about it. It could’ve only come from the storeroom near the hanger bay, where all field equipment is kept. He looked at the damage rapidly blinking, and feeling shaky in his limbs.
“How long is it going to take to repair all this?” he asked, gesturing with his hand.
“It’s beyond repair, sir, the damage is too great. The Sensor Hub needs to be replaced. Then it will take a week or so to reconnect the tendrils, and another week after that to calibrate it so it’s fully functional again. Do you know when the rescue crew will be here?” she asked, raising an eyebrow.
Nadir felt his heartbreak because the Lieutenant had been so busy she didn’t know what’s going on. “I’m sorry to inform you there won’t be any rescue crew.” Her mouth fell open, she began to speak when Nadir said, “I’m sorry Lijuan, but we really need sensors working as soon as possible. Are you sure there’s no way to fix this?”
Her shoulders sagged. “Maybe if I take some sensor hubs from a few Warbird’s and jury-rig them to our tendrils, we could get some limited functions back. But it’s a big job, sir.”
Nadir thought about ordering her to get to work, but he changed his mind. Lijuan looked exhausted, her hair limp, she looked filthy, and she appeared gaunt. With the recon-drones acting as temporary sensors, he could afford to cut her some slack.
He smiled warmly at her. “I think that’s a good idea, Lieutenant. Meanwhile, what you need now is to take a break. We have lots to do, and the last thing I need is you collapsing from exhaustion.”
“Really, sir? I mean there’s so much damage here?”
“The damage will still be here tomorrow. I want you to take a long hot shower, eat some food, and get a good eight-hour’s sleep. Now get out of here,” he said in a fatherly tone.
Lieutenant Huang shrugged, saying, “Yes sir.”
Then throwing down the axe and the circuit board she walked out of the area toward the nearest lift for the trail. She decided not to argue, because she knew he was right. Her body still ached from the gravity crush they had experienced, and her head pounded from dehydration. Nadir watched her leave feeling sorry for her. Such a fine young officer caught up in a shitty mess that’ll probably lead to our deaths anyway, he thought. He looked down at the axe in his hands, then the smashed up sensor array.
Ships words rang in his mind: He is death. Nadir shivered, wondering what else he would find as the day unfolded.
*****
The shuttle swerved as it adjusted its course to miss a meteor, and its electronic shielding fizzed as particles of space debris were vaporized or deflected as they made contact. Paul opened his eyes and sat up, feeling more refreshed than he had in some time. His head seemed clearer, and though his limbs still ached, it didn’t seem as bad thanks to some pain medications he found in the first aid kit. He got off the bench seat, and looked behind him to see Captain Barrett still sleeping with her brown hair hanging over her face. She’s not a bad looking woman, he thought. A shame she has a chip on her shoulder but what can you expect from a Velusian? He sat at the helm and noted they were still three hours from Earth, so he brought up another primitive television program on the monitor. It featured men in grey suits, questioning another scared looking man in an interview room. He hit the console again, and it changed to another program where two overweight women were cooking something. He clicked it again, and he recognized a road-runner and coyote cartoon. So he watched it, turning the sound up a bit so he could hear it.
The Coyote lie in wait on top of a large cannon, for the Road Runner to come around a turn. As he hears the Road Runner approach, he lights the cannons fuse and waits expectantly. The Road Runner suddenly appears in front of the cannon, and the Coyote rubs his hands with glee. However, instead of firing the cannonball, the entire cannon, coyote and all, is fired backwards into a mountain wall. The Road Runner escapes unscathed. When the coyote steps away from the mishap looking disheveled and injured, he turns and looks at the cannon in disgust. Then the cannon fires a ball into his face. Paul laughs.
A sarcastic female voice said behind him, “I see you’ve found something that suits your level of intelligence.”
Paul turned to see Barrett sitting up adjusting her hair. “Don’t knock it until you try it. Besides, given the beating we’ve taken recently, I think I empathize with the coyote.”
“Any programs on how to get home?” she asked, jamming her hands under her armpits.
Paul smiled weakly at her. “Going forward in time is not as hard as you think. Simple relativity really.”
She rolled her eyes. “Without a qdrive it is.”
He shook his head in disgust. “True. A sludge bomb, that’s fucked up.”
“How long until we reach Earth?” she asked, standing and making her way to the helm sitting next to Paul.
“A few hours yet,” he replied, pointing to the nav-readouts.
Barrett touched her screen and in a fe
w seconds the cartoon disappeared, replaced by a weary looking Colonel Nadir. She looked up toward the camera, and said formally, “Captain Barrett, reporting in, sir. We’re two hours and fifty minutes from Earth orbit. All is well at this time.”
Nadir nodded but had a deep frown. “Very good Captain, but I have some bad news at this end. We’ve found more instances of sabotage on Ship. Whoever is behind this treachery, is trying their damnedest to see us all killed.”
“What’s going on, sir?” Paul asked.
“The communications hub, and sensor array, have been sabotaged,” Nadir said, clenching his jaw.
“Colonel, once I get back on Ship I’ll start an immediate investigation into the sabotage. We need to discover who this arsehole is, and fast,” Paul said curling his lip.
Nadir stared blankly at them for a moment. “We’re using some recon-drones as temporary sensors, and communications are working for the moment. Mr. Crimpson has confirmed your hypothesis that we’re in the twenty-fifth century.”
“Has he any explanation why we’re receiving these ancient broadcasts?” Captain Barrett asked.
“No, not yet,” Nadir said.
“Sir, have you conducted any preliminary investigations of the sabotage?” Paul asked.
Nadirs eyebrows went up, then down as his face screwed up. “Investigations? Investigations! Do you think any of us have the fucking luxury at the moment to carry out investigations? Major Goddard you are…,” then the screen went dead replaced by static. Barrett started working her console looking extremely concerned. Paul asked her, “What the fuck happened?”
She looked up at him wide eyed and pale. “Ships communications must be down again. Could it be the saboteur?”
Paul gulped. “I fucking hope not. Shit, we can’t help them out here.”
“Maybe we should go back?” Barrett said, shaking a little.
“No, that would only piss off Nadir more than it would help. We stay on mission for now, and hope like hell they can get through it,” Paul said, thinking of Dexter and worrying for his safety.
*****
Colonel Nadir was about to chew Goddard’s a new one. To remind him if it wasn’t for him, they wouldn’t be in this mess in to begin with. However, as he began his rant the link to the shuttle dropped out. He looked down at the communications console, but it had gone dark. He gently touched the flesh of his chair and suddenly vanished from the Bridge, reappearing in Enginelab close to where Captain Blake worked.
