The Pathfinder Project

by Todd M. Stockert

  “Who the hell made him?”

  “Obviously, he is a product of this mysterious Brotherhood that we’re hearing so much about today,” Kaufield replied, looking over at the monitor. Its image still showed the motionless soldiers, standing on the lunar surface above while patiently waiting for orders. “But I think our course is clear. We’ve got to get the hell out of here while we still have the chance to do so!”

  THE PATHFINDER PROJECT

  Chapter II: Hide and Seek

  The Command Dome on Pathfinder was bustling with activity when they got back. People all around the cavernous room were moving as quickly as they could, getting the ship ready for launch. In the background, Kaufield could hear the sound of the ship’s maneuvering thrusters warming up as he helped the wounded Marine he was carrying. Murray and the other Marine were right behind him. Curious, Kaufield glanced at the wounded man next to him.

  “What’s your name, son?”

  “Corporal Benjamin Henderson, sir,” the man replied. He winced in pain as the Captain eased him cautiously into a chair alongside one of the larger computer consoles.

  “You stay right here, Benjamin.” Kaufield ordered as he turned to face the others. “Mary, please ask Dr. Simmons to come up here. “I’m pretty sure his arm is broken.”

  “Yes sir,” she replied, activating intra-ship communications. “Dr. Karen Simmons, please report to the Command Dome. I repeat, will Dr. Simmons please report to the Command Dome.”

  Mary turned back to her console, struggling to keep focused. Amidst the buzz of working people moving past her, she continued to hear comments about the possible destruction of Earth’s population. She couldn’t help but wonder about her family and friends back in Kansas. She had a couple of older brothers and a younger sister... they all worked hard to keep a farm there thriving.

  What would things be like now? How many, if any, had survived? She couldn’t help thinking about these things in the back of her mind, but diligently made sure the bulk of her attention kept focusing on the status reports and flashing indicators on the console in front of her.

  “Point-to-Point computer is on-line and ready, Captain.” She noticed that Kaufield was standing behind her, rather than joining the rest of the command crew in the dome’s ringed central control center. “Maneuvering thrusters are active. We’re pre-flighted and ready.”

  “Anything on motion sensors?” asked Kaufield.

  “No sir, but our security surveillance shows the soldiers that were waiting outside the airlock you just came from are busy forcing their way in. They obviously know we’re planning to try and leave.”

  Kaufield made his way past Mary down to the center of the Dome. He put his hand on the shoulder of a handsome, young officer wearing a Lieutenant’s uniform. “Thomas says the CAS Drive isn’t ready, Adam.” He said. “So how about we do this the old fashioned way?”

  “My brother never finishes his work on time,” Adam Roh replied sarcastically. “That’s why he’s a certified software weenie. Because he doesn’t realize that occasionally you just have to pick up a wrench and hammer on things until they work.” He smiled slightly as he worked, then glanced across the waist-high computers that encircled the center of the dome.

  “I heard that,” Thomas said, seated almost directly opposite his brother. “Sometimes I think it’s you that doesn’t understand. These days we’re working with systems that need a gentle kiss now and then… along with a great deal of fine-tuning.”

  The tone of his voice brought a smile to Mary’s face. “There’s still nothing on motion sensors, sir, but you should be aware that the enemy soldiers have penetrated the underground airlock.”

  Kaufield sat down next to Adam and both took a moment to verify the pre-flight indicators. “Everyone is aboard,” the Captain confirmed. “All outer hatches have been closed. If you folks will do the honors, I think it’s time that we were leaving.”

  Mary’s expression changed to one of frustration. “There’s structural damage to the overhead hangar doors, sir,” she reported. “They’re not opening.” The last part of her statement was almost drowned out by a growing roar as the ship’s maneuvering thrusters powered up for lift-off.

  “Is the locking mechanism disengaged?” the Captain asked patiently.

  “According to the indicator on my board,” she replied. “I can’t confirm.”

  “Adam, if you please.” Kaufield gestured overhead, and the Lieutenant smiled.

  “Aye aye sir,” he said.

  The Pathfinder lifted off the ground and hovered several dozen meters above the hangar floor. Adam carefully verified that the ship was level and then powered the forward thrusters to full capacity. The hammerhead “nose” of the ship lifted up and slowly touched the center of the hangar doors. The ship continued to rise and the doors began to open upward as the large ship continued to push persistently from below.

  “Careful Adam,” Thomas warned, “You don’t want to damage any of our critical areas.”

  “Don’t worry,” his brother replied. “We’re on a moon, remember? I won’t damage any of your precious wings in this low gravity.”

  The ship continued to slowly lift the large doors upward. Despite his confident comments Adam continued to watch the hull stress readouts carefully. He waited patiently until the angle of the doors looked correct and then fired the Pathfinder’s rear thrusters. The doors resisted at first, but the large ship beneath insisted and – unfettered by the lower gravity – they finally reached vertical then passed it. The Pathfinder flew out into the clear and hovered above the lunar surface as the massive hangar doors continued parting – each now fully open and falling toward the distant ground below.

  “A gentle kiss and fine-tuned precision flying,” Adam decided, meeting his brother’s eyes. Despite the direness of their predicament, Mary chuckled. Both of the brothers exchanged humorous criticism on a regular basis – she was used to it. But it still was fun to see what a great team they made when they put their minds to it.

  “We’re free and clear,” Mary reported.

  “Firing main engines,” Adam responded. He glanced over at the Captain. “Any particular destination you have in mind?”

  “Let’s head away from our solar system for now,” Kaufield replied. “Our next course is something that we’re all going to have to decide.” He stood up and again placed a hand on Adam’s shoulder. “Good work, Lieutenant.”

  Behind him, a kindly-looking blonde woman came through a door near Mary and glanced around the room. Kaufield pointed to the wounded Corporal Henderson, who was still grimacing in pain and trying to relax. Dr. Simmons walked over to the wounded soldier and began examining his arm.

  “We’re very lucky to be alive, people.” Kaufield decided.

  * * * * *

  “Somebody please pick one,” ordered Captain Kaufield. On his desk, a computerized map on his monitor showed half a dozen possible destinations. They had discussed the matter for over an hour and narrowed the list carefully. On the overhead monitors, the image of the moon was slowly dwindling as the ship continued moving away.

  “I choose somewhere else,” Thomas spoke up nervously. “With respect, sir.”

  “Is there something wrong with these locations?” the Captain asked.

  “Well, yes. They’re all near radioactive dust clouds like the one shrouding Neptune,” Thomas pointed out cautiously. “Most of the space-based colonies within our solar system have lots of supplies and equipment, not to mention food and water. From the reports we’ve heard, the Brotherhood is attacking anything – be it military or civilian – that could possibly be used as a refuge or temporary hiding place. They’ve been pretty thorough and efficient thus far.”

  “I agree,” Colonel Neeland said from his seat next to the Captain. “We have to assume that there are enemy warships waiting at these locations. If not, then they’ve no doubt got scouts flying nearby so that additional forces can immediately transit into the area when called.”


  Kaufield leaned back in his chair and ran his fingers through his dark brown hair, then self-consciously became aware of the action and glanced irritably at Mary. She was so fond of commenting, lately, about the flecks of gray beginning to show.

  “If you choose somewhere else, then where would you go Thomas?” the Captain asked. After working with the young scientist for so many years, he had really come to admire the young man’s intellect. He had a habit of thoroughly thinking things through and evaluating options before coming to a final, informed decision.

  “Right now, we have no idea which bases are occupied or still under attack. So I’d transit to any random point that’s far enough outside our solar system where we’ll be certain to find absolutely nothing,” he said with growing confidence. “With the exception of our CAS Drive, the Pathfinder is ready to go… we have all the supplies we could possibly need for the foreseeable future and we should take advantage of that.”

  Kaufield thought for a moment, then looked to Mary for additional comments.

  “The Garden and Livestock wings are fully operational,” she pointed out. “We’re built for an extremely long-term exploration of the surrounding galaxies, so we won’t run low on supplies. The only question is whether or not we can get the CAS Drive working.”

  “What is a CAS Drive?” Corporal Henderson asked. Dr. Simmons was placing the finishing touches on the new cast surrounding his broken arm as he spoke. “You’ve all been here for several years, but I’ve been stationed at Khyber Base for only a month. All I’ve heard is rumors that you’ve got something that can beat standard Point-To-Point transit.”

  “It’s a modified Point-to-Point,” Adam replied. “The project requires lots of hardware and a sophisticated new array of navigation software…” he paused to shoot a dirty look at his brother, “…all working together in order to extend the range of PTP.”

  “CAS stands for Controlled Artificial Singularity,” said Thomas. “Basically, the landing bay on the bottom of this ship has a large amount of extra shielding. Once we finish our final set of tests…” he looked confidently back at Adam, “… we’ll be able to generate a small, powerful artificial singularity beneath the ship using enhanced PTP technology. Instead of just carving out a temporary wormhole between points the usual way, we’re creating a temporary power source capable of supplying us with more energy than liquid fuel alone ever could. That’s why we have a sophisticated Observatory built onto one of the lower wings – because we will now have the capability to literally transit farther than we can see.”

  “Just because we can doesn’t mean we will,” Kaufield responded. “The Pathfinder was built to take us to other galaxies and to also provide for our long-term needs in case the engines are damaged or become temporarily inoperable. But we’d still have to use Thomas’ previous suggestion during exploratory situations as well. The hull is well shielded… but we want to make sure there’s absolutely nothing dangerous in the area we travel to. Our plans are to approach galaxies, survey the area from the Observatory wing, then transit further from there.”

  “Light from distant galaxies and other astronomical phenomena takes so long to reach our telescopes,” Thomas continued, “that we have no way of knowing how much things have changed in the vicinity of the really far away objects. For example, our universe seems to confirm the un-provable – but widely accepted – theory that everything began with some sort of massive ‘Big Bang’. Most of us accept this because if you study them closely – the galaxies in our local cluster are primarily flying apart as if from the result of a huge explosion.”

  “Sounds like a looong way to travel to me,” the Corporal replied. He rubbed the new cast on his left arm, took a deep breath and then flashed a grateful smile at Dr. Simmons. “I’m no astronomy expert,” he admitted, “but I do know that the number of stars right here in our own galaxy is pretty astonishing.”

  “There are billions,” Thomas noted proudly. “Most of them move in a very lengthy orbit around the center of our galaxy. Years of study has revealed that most – but not all – galaxies are basically spiral helixes like ours and contain a large number of cooling Red Giant stars. Hotter, younger stars like our own sun are much harder to find.”

  “There are plenty of them out there,” Adam interrupted, “Amongst all those billions.”

  “Well, with so much area to explore in our own galaxy… why go so far out?” Colonel Neeland wondered. “I knew you folks were planning a long journey as part of your project – probably one that left the general area surrounding our solar system – but I had no idea you were planning to explore other galaxies.”

  “Exploration on that scale is pretty much impossible with a single ship. We’re more interested in beginning to map out a small section of the known universe,” decided Thomas. “We want to eventually take a look at what’s WAY out there – as far as we can see. That’s why we can’t PTP too far at once. Some of the most distant pictures we have are of gaseous clouds and nebulae… much of which is what we’d expect to find as a result of the explosion that created our universe.”

  “However,” Mary pointed out, “Some of the galaxies we’ve studied are over 300 million light years away. And those gaseous nebulae that Thomas spoke of are closer to a billion light years distant. By the time their light reaches our telescopes, we have absolutely no way of knowing if they’re still just dust and debris or whether galaxies with stars and planets eventually formed. So it’s not wise to look before we leap – not without knowing for certain whether the destination is vacant or currently occupied by something.”

  “This sounds unbelievable,” Colonel Neeland commented. “For God’s sake, how long would it take for a mission like that? You could explore for years and barely scratch the surface of what’s out there.”

  “That’s why Pathfinder has been designed as a colony ship,” Kaufield responded. “We’re capable of leaving… quite literally… for a lifetime if necessary. The ship that was to return from our first mission would quite possibly have to be crewed by a whole new generation of our descendants.”

  “We’ve worked so hard on this,” Thomas said, frustration apparent in his tone. “Now everything has changed and we’re probably going to be put on indefinite hold. The government is going to need every ship available to help the survivors from the attack.”

  “If there are survivors,” Kaufield pointed out. “It’s quite probable there will be, but we need to determine specifically how many.” The Captain thought for another moment and came to a decision. “Thomas, please plot a standard PTP transit to an area of your choosing. It should be well outside our solar system and make certain that there is absolutely nothing of any significance nearby.” He noted the young man’s innocent smirk with satisfaction.

  Dr. Simmons was packing up her medical kit, but she had been listening. “If you don’t mind my asking, sir… then what?”

  “Then we launch a shuttle patrol back into our system to see who survived,” Kaufield said firmly. “We need to know if there are surviving ships we can rendezvous with, and we also need to determine how many refugees on Earth are in need of food and medical supplies.”

  “If you need me, Captain, I’ll be in the Medical Ward,” Colonel Neeland said. “I’d appreciate it if the good Doctor here will take a look at my collar bone. If it’s not broken, it’s certainly bruised.”

  “Follow me, sir,” Karen replied. She glanced at Benjamin – her first patient. “I think you should come, too.” She requested. “I need to run some additional tests on that arm, just to be safe.”

  Flanked by the two Marines, Karen left the Command Dome. The Roh brothers watched them leave, with Adam shaking his head once again as his thoughts drifted back to the suddenness of the unbelievable situation facing them. Thomas was thinking about a lot of things too, but he busied himself with coordinate calculation for the ordered PTP transit.

  * * * * *

  Thomas Roh stood next to one of the shuttles in the Pathfinder�
��s launch bay. He could barely contain his frustration. He detached the wireless transceiver from his belt and activated it, noting that several equally irritated deckhands also stood nearby.

  “Captain Kaufield, I think I’ve figured out how the Brotherhood shut down the military’s defensive systems,” he said simply into the transmitter.

  “Really,” the Captain’s voice erupted out of a small speaker on the handheld unit. “How?”

  “None of the computer systems in the shuttles or fighters down here will activate,” he replied, clearly intrigued. “There’s got to be some sort of ‘back door’ or system virus concealed in the software. When that warship bombed our base, they also shut down all of our support ships. I’m getting all kinds of conflicting diagnostic error messages… reports of environmental malfunctions mostly, even though that system is currently idle.” He laughed darkly and shook his head with disgust. “Our enemy probably had the military crews all worked up about losing air and heat, then popped out of transit and opened fire.”

  “Why haven’t we noticed anything with the Pathfinder’s systems?”

  “Because, sir, to put things simply… we’re using a completely different type of hardware and software than the rest of our fleet. It’s one-of-a-kind, and specifically developed to integrate PTP with the new CAS technology. We manufactured and programmed everything ourselves at Khyber Base. The Brotherhood apparently couldn’t get to us.”

  “So how long will it take to get the shuttles working?”

  “Unknown, sir. At least one part of their hidden program is using a randomizer. Instead of our software executing its machine code in the correct sequence, everything is being scrambled like the proverbial egg. It’s brilliant – I would never have found it without a deliberate search if they hadn’t activated it.” There was a long pause as the Captain silently weighed available options. Thomas gave him a minute or two before continuing. “I also have some additional bad news, Captain.” His expression betrayed the deep concern he felt. “When we turned on one of the shuttle’s systems, it immediately accessed the communications system. Not all of the onboard functions are completely useless – there’s a background program running that’s using the shuttle’s PTP computer to determine our location. Those coordinates are being fed directly into the onboard transmitter and broadcast on a frequency we’ve never used.”