“We’re not here to assist you. We’re here to work with you,” she said with fire in her voice.
“No, you two are here to assist me in my work. If I want you to get a cup of coffee, you’ll get it for me. If I want you to blow my nose, you’ll do that too.”
The man—Thomas, he believed the girl called him—kept his eyes lowered to the floor. Professor Ricter knew just from looking at him that he was weak and would be of no help on this mission. His hair, curly and dark, seemed to grow like runaway weeds from his head. It was the fashion amongst the younger generation to do wild, unprofessional things with one’s hair. It showed just how immature he really was. No respectable scientist would look this way.
“I have no time to babysit you two. It appears that I have no choice but to use you, so I’m going to make this one point very, very clear. I’m the boss, you two are my workers, and you will do as I tell you.”
The girl, he suddenly recalled her name as being Doctor Francis Mercury, gave him a dirty look. He knew she was fighting within herself. On the one hand, she was young and could not dictate what she worked on. When forced to work with a superior she didn’t like she had no choice but to back down. On the other hand, she was working with the most brilliant mind in the fleet and should feel privileged to work next to him.
At least that’s how he saw it.
“Okay,” she replied in what seemed like a controlled attempt to not explode in a fit of anger. “What do you need us to do?”
“Do you know how to calibrate instruments?”
“One of the first things they taught us,” she said.
“I sure hope you didn’t go to one of the fly by night school like Mars Tech. I need you two to help me calibrate the instruments. When we get out of wormhole space, I know it’ll ruin them, so we need a baseline as to where they should be before we start using them. Do you think you can deal with that, Thomas?” He looked at the young man, curious if he could even speak.
“Yes, sir,” he replied weakly.
“Son, if you’re going to survive working with me, you need to speak up! God, I can’t believe they sent you two to me!”
The door to the lab opened, and a short woman and a very tall black man walked in the room. The woman held herself high, as if trying to will herself to be taller than she really was. The man didn’t need to do that as he ducked slightly to avoid hitting his head on the door frame. He tried to recall what the uniforms meant and was pretty sure the woman was Captain Cook and the large black man was her second in command. “Morning, Professor, how are things going today?” Cook asked.
“Not so great. I asked for some help and they sent me two kids fresh out of school. How can I save a planet with this kind of help?”
She smirked and looked over at her tall companion. “You’re not here to save the planet, Professor; you’re only here to study the comet so that you can give us the best chance of destroying it.”
“Exactly. And without my help how do you plan on destroying it?”
“We have more than enough firepower to destroy the comet. We just need you and your assistants to help us determine the most efficient way.”
She was either lying or in denial. He had read reports on the comet, and its sheer size promised it would take unimaginable firepower to destroy it. He was sure that, given enough time, the Arwen could destroy it; but time wasn’t on their side. The comet was going to hit in thirty standard days time, and it was going to take the Arwen about twenty-eight days to reach the system, assuming the old ship could make it out that far without breaking down. “Face it, Captain, you need me more than you’ll admit.”
Her look, which he assumed was amused, changed. She looked at him with fiery eyes now. Maybe he had taken the conversation too far. “Don’t underestimate me, Professor; I’m not afraid to get another, less arrogant person to take your place. It’s not too late for that.”
He had to back down. She was right. He couldn’t push himself on her too quickly. When they were in wormhole space and she couldn’t replace him, he could let himself go. But not now. “I apologize, Captain; I did not mean to insult you or the Arwen. It’s a fine ship with a very long and distinguished history. Given time I might even find myself proud to have served on it.”
Once again a faint smile appeared on her face. That’s it, Theo, he thought, stroke her ego and she’ll go away. “Thank you, Professor. I’ll let you three get on with your work. If you need anything, just let me know.”
”Thank you, Captain. I do have one question: when are we leaving? The sooner we make it to the comet the sooner we can get to work.”
“All repairs are finished, and we’ll be leaving within the hour.”
“In that case, I’m going to need to assist my own assistants in getting the instruments ready. So if you’ll excuse me.”
Captain Cook and her second in command nodded and left.
~*~
Captain Cook took a seat in her command chair. It felt secure under her body, like an old lover welcoming her back into his embrace. This was where she had longed to be while the investigation slowly moved toward an end. The seat was placed in the middle of the bridge and raised above the rest of the bridge crew. That way, she could observe them without any obstructions.
Kel walked around to each member of the team, making sure they were working hard and all the data was correct. Kel would not sit until the jump, then only for as long as he was needed.
“Commander, what’s the status?” Captain Cook asked.
“Ready to leave the dock,” he said.
“Navigator, take us out.”
The Arwen pulsated under her as its engines came to life. The thrumming vibration seemed to match the beating of her racing heart. Gravity shifted slightly, pushing her back into the chair. It was as if Arwen were telling her to sit back, relax, everything is as it should be. “Space dock cleared,” Kel said, hovering over the navigator’s shoulder. “Particle accelerator running at one hundred percent. Strangelet count at nine percent max.”
The Arwen shuddered and several alarms sounded. “Report,” Captain Cook ordered.
“Nothing critical, Captain,” Kel said, running over to another station. “Just the accelerator being cranky. Fifty percent strangelet count, thirty seconds until wormhole creation.”
“Open the cone,” Marjorie said.
The ship’s cone opened like a blossoming flower. The particle accelerator hummed louder, its harmonic pitch reaching a range human ears couldn’t hear. Billions upon billions of heavy metal particles crashed into each other near the speed of light. A millisecond later a strangelet, particles found normally in the heart of a black hole, spontaneously burst into existence. A nanosecond later an unstoppable chain reaction turned the other particles into strangelets. A powerful magnetic field grabbed the cluster and compressed them together. A microscopic hole ripped through the fabric of time and space.
“Cone opened, wormhole formed,” Kel said.
“Tell the crew to brace for the wormhole jump,” Marjorie ordered.
Another gate in the particle accelerator opened and forced particles of inert gas into the magnetic field. The strangelets holding the wormhole together fed off the gas, turning the particles into strangelets, increasing the size of the wormhole. The lights blinked out for a second. “We have a wormhole creation in the drive; ejecting it into space.”
The Arwen threw the micro wormhole into space on a magnetized rail. It radiated as bright as a star, eating any stray matter it passed over. Arwen’s cone closed and from the tip continued to feed the hungry beast with gas. It expanded, brighter, larger, and hungrier.
“Wormhole seventy-five percent in size. The Arwen will enter in ten seconds. Ninety percent and growing.”
Marjorie gripped her chair tightly. Even after twenty years and several thousand jumps, it still made her uneasy to enter a wormhole. She had heard stories of ships entering and never coming out the other end.
Arwen moved closer. Light bent
around it as if trying to avoid a dangerous space. On the other side was nothingness. An empty universe whose only purpose seemed to be to allow those smart enough to find it passage to worlds they would never be able to visit otherwise. The ship entered and disappeared from reality.
Chapter Three
Marjorie did her best to ignore Professor Ricter. Every day she woke to find several requests, complaints, or general ideas on how to make the ship better. She had came to the conclusion he loved to hear the sound of own voice and spoke whatever thought came into his head without the benefit of filter. She felt sorry for his two assistants. She swore they had a thousand yard stare in their eyes whenever they had to endure another brutal day in that man’s company.
The Arwen thrummed under her feet as she walked the hallways. The crew, especially the new members, had gotten used to the idea she liked to wander around the ship at all hours of the day and night. She knew how it looked to the rookies, and they would tense up as she monitored them. She always detected a smile from the veterans who knew her patterns. It was on one of her nightly walks when she heard the shrill, annoying voice of Professor Ricter calling her name. She did her best to ignore him, hoping he’d give up. He was, however, very persistent. “Captain Cook, I need to talk to you!”
The two stood in the quiet hallway. It was around twenty-three hundred hours and most of the day shift had gone to bed. The night shift would be a skeleton crew. “Yes, Professor, how can I help you?”
“You didn’t answer several of my requests. I was hoping to discuss them with you if you had minute.”
She did her best to remember which one of the many requests came in that morning, but was at a loss. “I’m sorry, Professor, I’m very busy. I’ll do my best to get to them tonight, I promise.”
She tried to walk away but he kept in step with her down the hallway. “My lab is way too cold. I did a test today and found the cold has warped several of the mirrors on my scopes by three millimeters. Now, I know that it doesn’t seem like a lot, but those are vital instruments and I can’t calibrate them every morning.”
It wasn’t an unreasonable complaint and if it was the only thing he complained about she might pay some attention to it. As it was, Marjorie had had more than enough of this annoying man. “I’m sorry, but at night we drop the temperature a few degrees; it helps people sleep better.”
“Surely you can make an exception for my lab. Perhaps you could install an individual thermostat?”
“No, I can’t.” She stopped and did her best not to growl when she talked. “Professor, in less than a day we’ll be coming out of wormhole space, and I’m sure you’ll be too busy to worry about three millimeters.”
“Please, Captain, don’t make it sound as if my requests aren’t important, because they are.”
“Yes, they are important.” To you, she thought. “But I will not bend to your every wish. I am the captain of this ship, and I make the final call on everything. Is that understood?”
He stood there for a moment, and she knew he was sizing her up. “I’ll just have to do what I need to do, then, won’t I?”
“As long as it doesn’t interfere with this ship, then yes, do what you need to do.”
He shook his head, turned around and briskly walked down the hallway. She sighed and continued to her room.
One of the major problems in space that would probably never be solved involved communication. Even though her ship, while not traveling faster than light, was still moving away from the closest station and any communication would take thousands of years to reach Earth. All ships, when this far away from Earth, were isolated from the entire fleet. She could send a message beacon through a wormhole, but that cost the ship a great deal of energy and could only be used in an emergency.
It also meant that, for three weeks, she had no idea what was happening with the Corps. For all she knew, it didn’t exist anymore. She tried not to think about that as she got herself ready for bed.
After tossing and turning for a few minutes, she finally found a comfortable position and quickly fell asleep.
She saw herself inside the game room. Faceless people walked around talking to each other in a language Marjorie didn’t understand. They wore uniforms that looked like Corps uniforms but were covered with blood red stashes.
She tried to talk but found her words strange and unfamiliar. She tried to yell, but nothing came out of her mouth.
The wall peeled open and everyone, except herself, was blasted into space. She tried to scream in horror as she watched people explode into gory balls of flesh, organs, and blood.
The sound of her computer woke her up, the dream still replaying in her mind. She threw her covers off. The cold air of the room added to the chill she felt from the too real images of people exploding in the vacuum of space.
She brushed some of her sweat drenched hair out of her face and sat on her bed. Rubbing her face with her hands, she tried her best to push the dream away. It wasn’t a new dream, just a slight variation of the dreams she’d been having since the attack.
They had insisted she talk to a therapist not too long after the attack. She found her appointments with him more of a distraction than a help so she stopped going. She didn’t regret that choice but did wish she could talk to him after the nightmares. “You can’t worry about that now,” Marjorie said to herself. “Time to get back to work.”
She showered, dressed, and headed for her office. Karma was playing a cruel game with Marjorie; as she turned the corner she saw the professor walking toward her. “Captain, a word please.”
“Professor, at least let me have my breakfast before you ask me for anything else.”
“You go eat. I’ll just keep talking.”
“Please, Professor—”
“Will you stop calling me Professor?” He yelled, “It’s Professor Ricter or Theo. It’s an insult to just call me Professor. And I know that you’ve been avoiding me. My concerns are just as important as the next guy’s.”
Normally she was a tolerant person, but Professor Ricter pushed the wrong buttons at the wrong time. “Professor Ricter, will you shut up? We’ve all been more than tolerant of your requests and behavior. I have gone out of my way to stay out of your way while you do what you need to do and—”
“That’s all fine—”
“I told you to stop talking, Professor.” She decided to take the tone of voice she used to reprimand one of her crew members. “You will do what I tell you to do when I tell you to do it. Do you understand?”
“Captain, I—”
She stood straighter and placed her hands behind her back, “I asked you if you understood.”
“Yes, I understand, but—”
“But nothing! If you want me to listen to your requests, you will talk to me in a way befitting of my rank. In other words, you will respect me, my crew, my ship, and my mission. Do not forget that you are here as my guest, and as such, I expect you to respect my ship. Is that understood?”
Ricter turned red with rage, but he managed to keep it to himself. “Yes, Captain Cook, I understand.”
“Now, tell me in a nice way, what can I do for you?”
He hesitated, and she knew he didn’t have any real request or complaint. “It’s not important right now, Captain. I can handle it.”
“Good to hear.” She decided to extend an olive branch in the name of peace. “Now, would you like to join me and my second for breakfast? It’s private, and I would like to hear what you think about this mission.”
The redness of his face slowly faded as he calmed down. “Fine, Captain. I need to go back to my lab, but I think I will join you for some breakfast. I noticed this ship does have some good coffee.”
“Very good, I’ll see you in a few minutes. Good morning, Professor Ricter.”
~*~
Marjorie walked into the captain’s galley and Kel stood to greet her. He must have seen the stress on her face, because the first thing he said was, “Rough morning?”<
br />
“You have no idea. Ricter ambushed me last night before I went to bed and this morning before I got here.”
“The dangers of being captain,” Kel said, taking his seat across from Marjorie.
“I invited him to breakfast this morning.” Her voice reflected a sense of dread normally reserved for meals before a major battle.
“Great. I’ll get a plate, some earplugs, and make sure all the weapons are out of reach.”
She let out a short chuckle. “I don’t think it’ll be that bad. I gave him a piece of my mind before we got here, and I’m sure I cut off some of that arrogance he carries around with him.”
Professor Ricter walked in. He walked with confidence, as if his brief dress down by Captain Cook hadn’t happened. If she’d had any impact on his mood, he didn’t outwardly show it. Under his arm was a computer. “Good morning, Commander, Captain. I hope I’m not too late for some coffee. I’m afraid I did eat before I got here, but I’m always up for coffee.”
“Not at all, please take a seat. I’ll tell the cook to get you some. They already know what Kel and I normally eat, so we should be undisturbed until we’re done.”
“Good.” He took a seat across from Marjorie and next to Kel.
“Tell me, Professor Ricter,” Marjorie said, “why did you agree to this mission? You don’t seem happy traveling through space, and from what I’ve read you rarely leave Titan Station.”
“Because of how important this mission is,” he replied. “We’ve pretty much found everything there is to find in our solar system, and we’ve destroyed all the asteroid and comet threats to Earth. The men who found and destroyed those threats are heroes, legends even.”
“You’re talking about Kinnar, Ownes, and Reedman?”
“Yes! I am! Think about it, even two hundred years after their deaths they are not only still famous, but we know who they are by their last names only.”
The Arwen Book one: Defender Page 2
