“I would imagine there were a lot of stragglers like us, Captain,” continued Nori. “Just thinking about the number of civilian ships that are in flight at any given time – it boggles my mind. And we found absolutely nothing friendly.”
“We are so lucky to be alive,” decided Kaufield. “There is just no way around it – as thorough as this Brotherhood has been. They’re going to continue looking for refugees and stranded vessels of any kind. If they find us, they’ll most certainly try to capture or destroy us as well.”
“Bet on it!” Lightning commented bitterly. “You learn fast out there… keep the PTP computer ready with a new transit destination or else you spend most of your time dodging missiles.”
“I’ve been trying to avoid making a decision on this matter because it’s such a tough call – the possibility that we might have to choose to leave those survivors behind. Here we sit… ready to assist with food and medical supplies.” The Captain growled, his irritation obvious, and threw up both of his hands helplessly.
“If we go back you better break out the bullets first, Captain.” Nori warned darkly.
“Fortunately we have another option,” the Captain said, activating the Comm-link on his chair. “Thomas, how are you boys and girls doing down there?”
“100% success, as requested sir,” Thomas replied. “We’ve run 127 test flights to eight different target destinations and everything is working perfectly. We’re still using the same Canary probe that we started with.” He paused momentarily before adding, “My esteemed colleagues report that Contingency Plan Delta is also ready. Say the word and we’ll give this mysterious Brotherhood a solid knock on the forehead!”
“You’re not planning on attacking them, Dennis – are you?” Nori asked with obvious disbelief. “The Brotherhood already own every asset we had but this one. You can’t risk turning this ship over to them too!”
“They’re not getting this ship,” Dennis insisted firmly. “I’ll order it blown up first. And they’ll never get the technology, either. We left a ‘virus’ of our own called C-4 behind at the main computer on Khyber Base and we can just as easily destroy the Pathfinder.” He paused, thinking through the options that he had already been silently reviewing for most of the day. “The CAS Drive gives us a lot of choices we wouldn’t ordinarily have… such as the unique capability to travel very far away to a point where they can’t get to us. We can carry out our mission to explore Galactic space and return at any time we choose. That will give our surviving military assets – if they exist – time to regroup and organize a counter-strike. It’s quite possible that we could end up coming back in a few weeks and using this ship in a relief effort after all.”
“We passed a lot of debris on our patrol, Captain,” cautioned Nori bitterly. “I didn’t see anything that indicated even one of our military vessels survived, let alone anything sizeable enough to launch a counter-strike.” She glanced over at Walt and the grim expression on his face matched hers. “We can’t get to those people on Earth. I have family there too but we can’t help them. That’s probably why we haven’t run into other ships – because they’re doing the same thing we should. They’re pointing to a random point in the sky and saying ‘Let’s go somewhere – anywhere – so that we have a chance to keep the human race alive’.”
The Captain sat quietly, deep in thought, for several minutes. “Nevertheless, that will be our secondary objective,” he decided. “To PTP away means we leave the Brotherhood in control, at least for the time being.” Dennis was not a man who got upset very often but Nori could see the anger lining his features as he spoke.
“The primary objective, then…” she prompted.
“I want Lightning here to report to the hangar bay,” said Dennis. “And please pick up Corporal Henderson on your way down there. He’s been on limited duty since his arm was broken and I think he’s earned a seat on a trip into the history books!”
“Yes, sir!” Walt said, rising to his feet. He quickly exited the Command Dome.
“Nori, you’re with me,” Kaufield ordered. “I want you to join me in the Lab wing, where Thomas Roh will proudly demonstrate for you our new tactical advantage.”
“Aye aye, Captain,” was the enthusiastic response.
* * * * *
“Are you sure the Captain said I earned this?” Ben Henderson asked as he stepped aboard the shuttle and sat down in one of the empty chairs.
“Absolutely,” one of the pilots next to him responded. “I’m Lieutenant JG Bruce ‘Hopper’ Mendez and I’ll be sitting right beside you on this trip, Corporal.” Bruce took a seat next to Henderson and began activating the ship’s electronic systems. It had been fully refueled and was ready for another patrol. “That is, if you need your hand held,” he needled mercilessly.
The pilot in the front seat glanced back and smiled. “Hello,” he said cheerfully. “My name is Walter ‘Lightning’ Douglas… I’ll be your pilot for this trip.”
Henderson still looked very skeptical. “I don’t know if I trust a branch of the military that has to give its troops an extra name. Why do they call you ‘Lightning’ anyway?” He held up his uninjured right arm and wiggled his fingers. “Are you really fast or something?”
“No. They call me that because the first time I flew a fighter through a target range, I never hit the same spot twice,” Walt replied, chuckling. “I have a tendency to land that way, too.” He fired the shuttle’s engines and it began to move slowly forward at first before finally accelerating out of the Pathfinder’s hangar bay and into the empty darkness of star-speckled space beyond.
“Oh, that’s very funny. Very funny,” Henderson replied. He glanced over at Mendez next to him. “So why do they call you ‘Hopper’?”
“You don’t want to know, sir,” Bruce cautioned.
The shuttle maneuvered carefully beneath the Pathfinder’s hangar bay and drifted back gradually between the larger ship’s lower wings. Henderson noticed the brilliant white flicker of the artificial singularity – still burning brightly at the tip of the metal wand that extended down from the hangar bay’s lower hull. Behind it was a rack of neatly organized Canary probes, the additional units from the inventory list that Thomas had mentioned.
“You mean we’re the guinea pigs on this ride?” Ben practically shouted. Hurriedly he began fastening the safety belts on his seat. “That’s my reward for getting thrown against a wall by a genetically enhanced mutant?”
“Relax, this is technology that’s been fine-tuned for years already,” grinned Bruce. Despite his confidence he had a slightly tense expression on his face as the pulsating white light surrounding them grew brighter and brighter. “Although no human has ever officially completed a CAS transit before. We’re going to be in the history books, even if this fails.”
Henderson remained firmly unconvinced. “Wait a damn minute… aren’t we supposed to send some sort of animals through first?”
“Pathfinder this is Lightning,” Walt said briskly. “Shuttle Four is in position and awaiting your go command.” He eased back on the thruster controls and the small cargo vessel slowed almost to a complete stop, drifting forward just ever so slowly.
“Shrinking PTP window to match shuttle specs,” Glen’s voice stated informatively. “We have a go. Prepare yourselves gentlemen.” He had barely finished the words before a huge greenish flash filled the windows. Almost instantaneously the windows went completely black… they were staring at an all-encompassing, empty black void. All three of them sat quietly for a moment, a little disoriented by the sudden change.
“Where are we?” Ben finally asked cautiously. “I don’t see anything out there.”
“You shouldn’t,” replied Walt. “We call this Bravo Point. It’s been our first planned destination for several years.”
“Well you could have picked a better one,” Ben decided. “If you’re exploring space, shouldn’t you travel to places where there’s something to see?”
“By ‘some
thing to see’ do you mean this?” Walt asked, laughing with amusement. The shuttle rolled forward until the Galaxy clusters suddenly appeared in the front window. The view was virtually identical to the pictures Thomas had transmitted to their computer prior to lift-off. Beside Henderson, Hopper smiled in delight as the Corporal’s eyes widened and his jaw dropped in absolute awe.
“Lightning, this is Pathfinder. Can you see anything?” Glen asked. “Was your trip to Bravo Point successful?”
“I’m pretty sure we’re here,” Walt responded carefully. He too found himself very impressed with the spectacular display of star clusters. “Hopper, what do you read?”
“All systems confirm the transit completed successfully,” Bruce said, a big grin on his face. He surveyed the mass of readouts scrolling across his monitors. “Although I am unable to detect the PTP window at the target coordinates.”
“That’s okay, it is still there,” Glen insisted. “If it wasn’t there’s no way you’d be receiving this transmission. Make your five minute survey and then return to base immediately. Don’t worry – if anything goes wrong and we’re unable to hold the window open for you we’ll move the Pathfinder to your location. If that contingency develops, make certain to move a safe distance away… we will emerge precisely where you did.”
“Now that’s what I call a reward!” decided Corporal Henderson, smiling from ear to ear. He couldn’t take his eyes off the wondrous, glittering star-filled galaxy clusters.
* * * * *
Adam had just showered and changed clothes when his door alarm chimed. He ran a comb through his hair and wiped the rest of the shaving cream off of his face. He quickly splashed on a bit of cologne, then called out “Come in.”
The door opened and Nori entered. She had a huge smile on her face and quickly hugged him. “It works, Adam, it works!” she said excitedly. “We just transported a shuttle over 7 million light years and then returned it successfully.” She couldn’t contain her enthusiasm. “You should have seen the looks on the faces of the crew when they got back. I want to go next!”
“Thomas will be extremely pleased with himself,” Adam decided. “Nothing drives him like success.”
“He’s not the only one,” predicted Nori, leaping into his arms. She kissed him passionately and found him instantaneously returning the favor. His huge frame dwarfed hers, and he carried her effortlessly over to the bed. The clean shirt he had put on two minutes before landed on the floor next to them.
“Okay Siren,” he said somewhat suspiciously, gazing directly into her beautiful brown eyes. “Just remember that we’re both professionals on this ship and I don’t need you tempting me into anything that will get me into trouble. These quarters aren’t nearly as private as the ones we had on the base, so if they call you Siren because you scream a lot – I want to know now.”
Nori slowly, slowly ran her hands up his chest and then down his sides. Unable to resist, he kissed her this time… longer and more intensely than their first.
“Think of me as a warning alarm,” she replied coyly. “I’m letting you know that as of this moment until early tomorrow morning you – are – in – extreme -- danger. From this, for starters…” Her tongue unexpectedly found its way into his left ear.
He kissed her again and casually began taking her top off. She turned her back to him and pushed her hair aside so that he could unhook her bra. “I think this is going to be more like an air raid,” he decided. “Everything’s going to be happening all at once for about ten minutes – then there will be nothing but peace and quiet.”
“And then after an hour or so, the cycle will begin again!” Nori whispered in his ear as she playfully nibbled away at the lobe. They both landed on the bed laughing and Adam slapped the button on the night stand next to his bed. Around them, the lights dimmed.
THE PATHFINDER PROJECT
Chapter V: Memorial
Dennis Kaufield was already on the bridge that second morning after the attack. Mary arrived early for her shift, still smoothing the wrinkles from the front of her blouse as she walked into the Command Center. The Captain was sitting next to her station rather than in his usual seat near the exits. He was busily making adjustments to a new laptop that had been installed during the night shift.
“Good morning.” Mary said pleasantly, taking a seat and beginning a survey of her console. The motion sensor readouts were all clear, and the person she relieved smiled gratefully before heading off-shift. She busied herself for several minutes but was unable to resist teasing the Captain a little. “More CAS equipment?” she asked casually. “The only difference between men and boys is the size of their toys.”
“Perhaps you’ll change your mind if this toy ends up saving our ship,” responded Dennis. He swiveled the laptop toward her. “This is one of our newer models, with a dedicated touch screen. It’s been tied into your motion sensing system so that any objects detectable in the immediate vicinity will instantly be identified as friendly, enemy, or neutral targets and displayed on screen.”
“Fortunately there’s not much else out there right now,” decided Mary. Like her own console, the display screen he was showing her was blank except for a white dot and a larger brown dot.
“The white dot is the Pathfinder,” he continued. The brown dot is the large asteroid that we’ve kept between us and our solar system just in case an enemy patrol PTP transits into the area looking for us. Watch this.” Dennis grinned, pressing his index finger onto the screen’s surface. The monitors above them flashed and Mary noted that the white dot on her screen was now blinking up at her from the other side of the brown dot.
“Instantaneous PTP capability,” she guessed, glancing over at Dennis with an impressed smile. “You can move the Pathfinder to any short-range location with the touch of a finger. Now that could prove very useful if we get surprised by enemy ships.”
“It is a crucial part of the contingency plan I’ve been working on with Thomas,” Kaufield noted. “We will still need to use the computer to coordinate the longer transits, but the touch screen – when tied in with our motion sensors – works very effectively for shorter trips around our immediate vicinity. The system knows where everything is, so all I have to do is press my finger where I want to move the ship and – zap – we’re there.”
“What’s the colored, vertical rectangular band on the right side of the screen for?” Mary asked, suddenly becoming very interested in the new hardware.
“It’s for Z-Axis three-dimensional maneuvering,” chuckled Dennis, picking up on the curiosity in her voice. “Your motion sensing equipment gives us the X, Y, and Z coordinates of each target in the local area. However, the screen is limited to a two-dimensional X and Y display. By using one hand for the touch screen area and the other for Z-Axis scrolling, I can specify plus or minus Z coordinates and PTP us directly to the same height or depth of a target as easily as moving across the X and Y area of the screen.”
“Ships using standard PTP would have a much more difficult time managing the shorter distances,” Mary commented. “The whole concept of Point-to-Point was created because it takes too long using standard thrusters to move between planetary bodies. It would seem the CAS Drive has other advantages than simply increasing the distance we can travel to.”
“You have no idea, Mary,” said Kaufield. “The precision of this new system is literally breathtaking. It’s working exactly as we theorized so we’ve got a definite edge on the Brotherhood if we run into them again.” He touched the screen again, hopping the Pathfinder back to its original position. Once again the brown dot was between the ship and their solar system. “The computer has been programmed with safeguards, too. If I accidentally touch a spot that’s already occupied by one of the targets… well, at least one X, Y, or Z coordinate must meet a safe distance parameter or the trip is automatically cancelled and a warning tone will sound.”
“Are you planning some kind of attack on the Brotherhood?” she asked.
�
�Contrary to what most people believe, no.” Dennis said firmly. “But I do have every intention of trying to determine for certain whether any of our people survived. If we can possibly locate and provide relief to them then that’s what we’re going to do.” He paused, continuing to work with the new equipment. “However, I do believe that in trying to find survivors an encounter with the Brotherhood is very probable. That’s why we’re working so hard to be sure we’re ready for them.”
“Are you coming to the Memorial ceremony that they’re holding in the Chapel this afternoon?” asked Mary. “I don’t know if you heard, but the Chaplain is planning to say a few prayers and honor the memory of all those who have died.”
“Yes – I’ll definitely be off-shift by then,” Dennis replied. “I have to stop by my quarters and pick up Joseph, but we’ll be there.”
* * * * *
Mary felt a lot better later that day after the prayer service concluded. She sat near the edge of a pew, watching all the people file past her and back out into the corridors of the Pathfinder. Some of them wore military dress uniforms as she did, but most were civilian technicians, science specialists and their family members. Captain Kaufield and Joseph had sat next to her, but she had softly commented to them that she wanted to remain behind for a few more minutes and so they had left with the others.
The Chaplain was an older Priest and his words were wise. He had gracefully counseled them to accept the things that they could not change, also pointing out that – although many had died – everyone should hold out hope that at least some of their family and friends had survived and would fight back. It would be awfully difficult for even the Brotherhood and their surprise attack to have exterminated everyone. Such an outcome was almost unthinkable to most, and his words were more than a little reassuring to them.
The Pathfinder Project Page 8
