Trader Vyx

by DePrima, Thomas

  "Are you looking for Commander Cameron, Captain?"

  "Yes, I am."

  "He's below this deck, checking power couplings in one of the horizontal access tubes."

  "I see. When he returns, tell him that I've called a meeting of senior level staff for 1600 hours. That gives him three more hours to learn what he can. The meeting will be in conference room 6-12-2-Quebec."

  "Yes, ma'am. I'll tell him as soon as he returns."

  The ship's senior staff, consisting of Lieutenant Commander Pulsen - the first officer, Lieutenant Commander Cameron - the chief engineer, Lieutenant Kerrey - senior helmsman, Lieutenant Matthews - senior navigator, Lieutenant Doran - the ship's medical doctor, and Marine Lieutenant Leese- the senior security officer, met with Jenetta at the appointed time for the situation briefing.

  "Brief us on the situation, Commander," Jenetta said to Bill Cameron, who was still wearing the maintenance harness needed to work in an engineering tube. The leading edge of several thin straps that allowed engineering techs to tether themselves in the weightless environment as they worked, hung from the harness in self-retracting coils.

  "We have life support, lighting, and basic services restored. We've accomplished this by jury-rigging the power panels in Engineering. The ship is under power but we're still deaf, dumb, and blind. It may take days to get everything under control. We seem to have suffered a massive, ship-wide, power surge that fused half the electrical systems on board. Thankfully, life support, lighting, and basic services are on protected loops that weren't affected. We simply had to reroute power around the main distribution systems in Engineering."

  "Excellent work in getting the basic systems back up so quickly," Jenetta said. "It seems that our most important task right now is to get communications restored so that we can relay our problem to the Prometheus. I'm sure that they're trying everything possible to contact us."

  "The bridge consoles are fried. The same is true of the Auxiliary Control and Communications Center; everything is fried. We'll have to completely rebuild each console, and I'm not even sure that we have sufficient parts on board."

  "If you concentrate on communications, how long to get something operating?"

  "We might be able to get the bridge console functioning in four or five days, but the problem is not limited to that. We have to rebuild all the transmission and receiving equipment, as well."

  "Is the flight bay operational?"

  "If not, we could make it operational, but we can't use the flight bay while traveling faster than light."

  "Can't the temporal field generator be disengaged?"

  "Not without doing permanent damage. Given time, I should be able to perform an orderly shut down of the drive system. We can then repair the circuits when we dock with Prometheus. But if we don't shut it down properly, a shipyard will require months to replace it. Maybe longer because of its experimental status."

  "How much time?"

  "I don't know. A week, maybe two."

  "We can't run blind for two weeks."

  "Our plotted course was clear, Captain," Lieutenant Matthews said. "There's little danger of encountering obstacles during that time."

  "But we can't be sure that we're still on course. For all we know, we could be traveling in one enormous circle, or zigzagging through this sector of space. If only we could speak with the Prometheus. They could be our eyes."

  "If we weren't traveling faster than light," Bill Cameron said, "I could easily make an old RF radio set for basic communication, but we need IDS to communicate with them while we're traveling at this speed."

  "Okay, Bill. Get your people working on the com systems, and see if you can stop the drive system without destroying it. I've grown kind of fond of this little ship and I'd hate to see it docked with the Prometheus for years, without any opportunity to use it."

  "Aye, Captain.

  "Anything else?"

  "Are we certain that this wasn't a deliberate attack by outside forces?" Lieutenant Leese asked.

  "Nothing is certain yet," Commander Cameron replied, "but there's nothing to suggest that it was. Our outer skin is made of the new Dakinium, and it's many times more resistant to damage than Tritanium. I know that we're not breached anywhere, and the Prometheus was only a kilometer off our starboard stern quarter. Even if we had missed an enemy coming up from behind, they would surely have spotted them and warned us. So far, it looks like the attempt to go to full power overloaded the electrical system somehow."

  "Anything else?" Jenetta asked. When no one replied, she said, "Very well. We'll meet here each day at 1600 hours until this situation is resolved. Dismissed."

  The days passed slowly. There was little for Jenetta to do except keep morale up. She found herself spending more and more time working out in the gym or jogging around the flight bay with her cats. They had become the places for her to expend the excess energy that arose from her feelings of helplessness. As consoles were disassembled and slowly rebuilt, the bridge began to look as messy as Engineering. At the end of seven days they were still flying deaf, dumb, and blind.

  "Let's start with a sitrep, Commander," Jenetta said at the start of the daily meeting with senior staff.

  Commander Cameron was really looking haggard from the long days with little sleep. "We're still working primarily on restoring the communication system, but we're also working on the other systems as well. We're still days away from getting any of them operating. I wish that I could give you a more optimistic estimate but I can't."

  "Thank you, Commander. We know that you're doing your best under trying circumstances. Have you determined yet if the engines can be disengaged without doing irreparable damage?"

  "I'm still working on it, Captain. I've tried a few things but I haven't been successful. I'm afraid of causing a problem in the antimatter containment since I don't understand all of the interface linkages on this new design. I don't have to tell you what would happen if the containment systems failed."

  "No, we're all aware of what happens when antimatter comes into contact with matter, but we can't continue on like this much longer. I grow more fearful with each passing day that we're in danger of a collision. Let's set a time limit of one week. If you haven't figured out how to disengage the engines by the end of seven more days, we'll take whatever measures are necessary to stop the ship."

  "Okay, Captain."

  "Anything else that needs to be discussed?" After several seconds of silence, Jenetta said, "I realize that these daily meeting have become shorter with each passing day since there's so little to discuss. Let's discontinue the daily meetings. We'll meet again in seven days, or when our systems start to come online if that happens sooner. Dismissed."

  After the meeting, Jenetta changed into her sweats and went to the gym. Hurtling through space without any control over speed or direction was also causing great distress among the rest of the crew, and the gym was crowded with crewmen working out feelings of frustration and helplessness. Jenetta took her cats to the flight bay instead. There were a few runners there, but not enough that they'd be disturbed by her cats as she ran.

  Five days later, the feel of the ship suddenly changed. Jenetta walked to the closest bulkhead and placed her hand flat against it. The vibration was gone. She hurried down to Engineering to find Bill Cameron. He was in earnest discussion with several of his top people when she arrived.

  "Commander, the vibration has stopped. Have you disengaged the engines?"

  "Not me, Captain, but something has. We're investigating."

  "Do you think that the Prometheus has found a way to halt us?"

  "No, the change happened internally. My first impression is that the collision avoidance system dropped us out of Light Speed."

  "Collision avoidance has been functioning?"

  "Apparently, but without any of the consoles working, we couldn't know."

  "I wish that I knew. I would have slept better."

  "As would I. We should know more in an hour,
Captain. I'll let you know as soon as I do."

  "Very good, Commander. I'll be on the bridge."

  Jenetta wasn't the only non-engineer to notice the change in the ship. As she returned to the bridge she saw that everyone there was standing against the rear bulkhead with their hand on the wall.

  "The ship's light speed drive has disengaged," Jenetta announced. "Our engineers are investigating and will let us know what they find very shortly. Now that we're sub-light, the Prometheus can begin working on our problem also."

  Commander Cameron arrived on the bridge a little over an hour later. He followed Jenetta into her briefing room where they both took seats around her desk.

  "It appears that it was the collision avoidance system that's responsible for our drive shutdown. Even though our console connections to the DeTect sensor net are still offline, it appears the net was working fine and the ACS direct cutoff connection to the temporal generator was still intact. We hope to have the bridge tactical console back up today or tomorrow. We've been cannibalizing the helm, navigation, and tactical consoles in the Auxiliary Control & Communications Center to make usable consoles here on the bridge from each of the two."

  "That's great. How about communications?"

  "We're putting the transmission equipment back together now. We've had to cob the system together by using parts not originally intended for an IDS transmitter and receiver, but the system should function."

  "Excellent, Bill. We'll need the com system to dock with the Prometheus. I wish that we had a shuttle, tug, or fighter in our bay. It would have given us communications during this mess, and give us eyes now that we're stopped."

  "We'll have to recommend that for future trips. Maybe we should open the flight bay so that a ship from the Prometheus can dock."

  "Good idea. They may already be outside, just waiting for an invite." Jenetta reached for the com panel on her desk and then stopped. "You don't realize how much you take it for granted until it's gone."

  Walking to the door, Jenetta called out, "Ensign Danzig, please go down to the flight bay and have the officer on duty open the bay door."

  "Is someone coming in, Captain?"

  "Perhaps. We just want to be ready in case the Prometheus sends over a shuttle."

  "Yes, ma'am," the ensign said, before turning and hurrying from the bridge.

  Jenetta walked to the beverage synthesizer in her briefing room as the doors closed.

  "Coffee or tea, Bill?"

  "No thanks, I've already had three cups during the past hour. I've been living on the stuff for the past two weeks and I've got to cut down."

  Jenetta prepared a large mug of coffee and took her seat behind her desk.

  "Were you able to extract any information from the sensor net? What caused the collision avoidance system to shut the temporal field generator down; an asteroid, planet, another ship?"

  "We only know that it appeared to be a long range contact, so it must be big."

  "I wonder if it could have been the Prometheus cutting across our bow to trigger the system?"

  "Not if we were running at, or faster than, Light-412. They would have had to be traveling faster than us, and we know that they can't."

  The door chime sounded and announced Ensign Danzig.

  Come," Jenetta said.

  Ensign Danzig ran into the briefing room as soon as the doors opened. Obviously agitated, he practically shouted, "Captain, we opened the flight bay door, but there's a problem! The stars are all wrong!"

  "Wrong? What do you mean wrong?"

  "The configurations aren't what they should be."

  "Have you allowed for twelve days of travel at Light-412?"

  "Yes, ma'am, but the star groupings visible through the bay door are all wrong for what we should be seeing. It's not just me, Captain. Lieutenant Conover said the same thing. We couldn't get a real good look from the flight bay control room window, but nothing was recognizable."

  Jenetta looked at Bill for a few seconds. "Could we have turned around and been headed back towards Vinnia?"

  "Anything's possible, Captain. We should go take a look."

  "Right. Let's go."

  Twenty minutes later Jenetta and Commander Cameron were suited up in extravehicular activities suits. Designed to allow people to work and function in a zero atmosphere environment, the suits are more commonly referred to simply as E.V.A. suits. With the monitor systems down, they would have to physically go outside to get a good look at the space around the ship. They entered the flight bay through an airlock and walked towards the open door.

  "They're right," Jenetta said. "What I can see is all wrong for what we should be seeing. I don't recognize any of the star configurations that we can see from here."

  "We'll have a better view topside."

  Once outside it only took a few minutes to maneuver up to the top of the ship using their suit jets. They stood on the highest point of the ship and scanned the area around them. The Prometheus was nowhere in sight.

  "Any ideas, Bill?" Jenetta asked.

  "Not really. Where do you suppose the Prometheus has gone? They shouldn't have left us while we were having a problem."

  "I don't know. Maybe they didn't leave us. Maybe we left them. Maybe we achieved Light-487 and maintained that until the engines shut down. It may take a couple of days for them to catch up with us. That doesn't explain the stars though."

  "Astronomy was never my strong suit," Lt. Commander Cameron said. "I rely on machines to tell me where we are."

  "I was trained in astrophysics, and I first came into space as a science officer. I've spent thousands of hours studying star configurations, but I don't recognize the stars from here. We'll have to get the tactical console or the navigation console online so that we can identify our position. It's as important now as the communications system."

  "Aye, Captain. Let's get back inside so that I can get to work."

  "Just give me a few minutes to record some images."

  Using the vid camera that she had brought along, Jenetta performed a 360 degree horizontal and vertical pan to record the space around the ship before they headed back to the flight bay.

  Once inside the ship, Jenetta gave the order to close the bay door. There didn't seem to be any likelihood that friendly visitors would be dropping by anytime soon.

  While Bill headed for engineering, Jenetta went to the bridge. The consoles might be inoperable, but she had a portable computer that wasn't connected to the power system when the problem occurred. She had only been using it to record her daily logs, but it also contained star charts for half the galaxy.

  Downloading the video frames into the portable computer, Jenetta performed a search of the charts looking for a matchup. When the computer completed the search, the results made her jaw drop in shock.

  * * *

  Chapter Seven

  ~ March 5th, 2273 ~

  "Earlier today, Commander Cameron and I went topside for a look around," Jenetta said to the senior officers at the emergency meeting that she had called. "Our walk was prompted by reports from Lieutenant Conover and Ensign Danzig. After the flight bay door was opened to provide entry to a shuttle from the Prometheus, they observed that the visible star configurations were unfamiliar. Our initial observations bore this out, but we forgot about that temporarily when we discovered that the Prometheus was nowhere in sight. After recovering from the shock of learning that we were alone, I shot vid images of the space around us.

  "Upon returning to my briefing room, I downloaded the images into my portable computer and compared them to the star charts it contains. I've confirmed that we did travel in a straight line after our power problem occurred, and that we're now roughly three-hundred-fifteen light-years inside the former Frontier Zone."

  There was stunned silence around the conference table.

  "That's impossible," Lieutenant Matthews, the senior navigator, said.

  "Impossible or not, it's happened. We're here. We'll need the navigation
or tactical station to get a precise fix, but my calculations should be accurate to within a billion kilometers."

  "To travel that far in twelve and a half days means that we would have had to be traveling at––" Lieutenant Matthews paused to punch the numbers into his tiny wrist calculator, "roughly one light-year per hour. That would make our speed greater than Light-9000, but there is no such speed."

  "There wasn't such a speed, before. Of course we don't know exactly how long it took us to get here. At least not relative to the rest of the universe."

  "What do you mean, Captain?" Lieutenant Doran, the ship's medical doctor, asked.

  "According to Einstein's Theory of Special Relativity, and his ideas about space and time distortions."

  "But aren't we exempt from that?"

  "Normally, yes," Commander Cameron said. "But no one's ever traveled this fast before; at least not to my knowledge."

  "I don't understand. The mechanics of space travel has never been my strong suit, but it hasn't been a problem because I'm a good doctor and I understand medicine. How can we be exempt some of the time, but not others?"

  "Okay, doc," Commander Cameron said, "let me see if I can explain it in layman terms. Every schoolchild knows that the engines on a starship aren't really engines in the old sense. They're nothing like the giant behemoths gobbling tons of liquid fuel every second as they did on the ships that first lifted mankind into the heavens. Einstein postulated, early in the twentieth century, and long before space travel was possible, that the relationship between the four dimensions of space and time dictated that nothing could reach the speed of light because time slows down as you approach the speed of light. However, thinking changed when science first hypothesized about the existence of additional dimensions. By the end of the twentieth century, scientists had shown us that at least ten dimensions could be proven through mathematics. It's difficult to think in such terms because we live in a three-dimensional world, and our minds tend to accept only that which we can see and touch, but we must train ourselves to think differently.