by Clay Moore
He heard Amarantha warning Cody that she was starting the setup. Then he listened to the hydraulics power up, and Amarantha moved all the hydraulic systems. That was mainly the control surfaces and the external airtight doors. Also all
“All systems passed. Amarantha PV 267 is operational. I have reported our status to Headquarters.”
“Amarantha, change of preferences. Only I can authorize communications to any government agency.”
“Preference saved. I apologize.”
“Don’t worry about it. We will find these things and get the preferences in order. I don’t want to go through a list of preferences right now.”
Brian pushed his seat back. He put his suit coat back on and walked off the cockpit. All he cared about was that he was free again. The stars beckoned.
WHEN READY IN ALL RESPECTS...
The day before launch found Brian helping Cody with a fuel system problem. The two Starjets were flaming out. They discovered this with a stationary Starjet test. Brian was amazed at the sheer competence of his Ship Technician. There were now on a trip through the ship’s liquid lines. For this Brian wore a coverall over his New ship’s uniform.
The uniform was a gray long sleeve turtleneck, a gray leather belt, and gray work slacks. Brian wore the ship’s shoes which were designed for comfort and not work. They both were at the crossover point of the fuel delivery. to the two Starjets
Brian never expected that he would be crawling through the mechanical spaces of his Starship. When they reached the cross over, Cody stopped them. He shined his cold light on a radamite heap. Cody vacuumed it up with his portable vacuum.
“We were right,” said Cody shining his light up at the brass line that was the fuel line.
At the point he was shining his light there was a T junction. Fuel came from the tanks and then split into two lines one for each of the Starjets. Brian could see a small trickle of Radamite from the Junction on the flow.
“Fluid dynamics,” said Brian.
“Yes, this is the source of our fuel problem. I have a permapatch for it.” He held up what looked like a copy of the T junction done with fabric.
He cleaned off the T junction. He slipped the T junction patch as if it were a sleeve. Then Cody asked for the dope. Brian brought in the new can of dope. This was the catalyst that made the fabric twice as strong as the original metal. He applied the catalyst to the sleeve. Brian watched as the sleeve shrunk around the tubing and hardened. Cody put the top on the catalyst can. Then they cleaned up the Radamite as best as they could. During flight tomorrow he would open some of the airtight doors on the mechanical spaces. That would clean a lot of things out of the ship.
Brian was out of the Mechanical space first. Cody signaled to his ears. They both put on the sound protection. Cody used his Slate to start up the twin Starjets. He could do this because there was an exhaust catcher which shunted noise and the hot gasses out of the engines and into a heated receptacle a hundred yards away.
Cody held the burn to quarter power. Then he put it on to idle. This was the point that the jets would sputter and die. He let it idle for five minutes. Then he made it rest, scanning the ship for heat plumes. There were none.
“That got it, soor. You’re certified for flight.” Cody gave Brian a high five. Then he remembered who he slapped hands with. “Sorry, soor.”
“About what?”
“The Slap.”
“Cody, when we are on the pad working on the Amarantha together. We are brothers. Outside of the Pad, I am a Special Agent. Understand?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Good I got to report this back to Headquarters.”
“I’ll put the access panel on, soor.” Cody smiled. He was liking this Special Agent.
Brian used the cargo ramp to climb into the ship. He took the spiral staircase and then sat in his pilot’s couch in the cockpit. Amarantha automatically moved him into position.
“Amarantha, call headquarters, Director’s office.”
“It is ringing,” said the AI.
“Director of Secret Service.”
“Z02 calling.”
“I’ll put you through.”
Miss Cumberland had to be the seventh personal assistant Carla went through in as many days. They all were competent. It’s just that she would find something wrong with someone.
Carla answered her com with a gruff voice. “The Director, Z02. What is your status?”
“Cody has certified us for flight.”
“Okay, you are definitely leaving us tomorrow. I’ll get the calculations done and give you a target time for take-off. Stay at your ship tonight. You may need to leave in the wee hours. Carla, out.”
“What do you need to accomplish that your departure is strictly controlled,” asked Amarantha.
“I have to be at McKenney Starport in Touchdown in time to plant a tracker on the subject.”
“Do you have to be off the ship by a certain time?”
“No, all private pads can come and go as they please at McKenney.”
“Go early. Find this person’s arrival time, wait, and then meet him in the crush of people debarking.”
“Do you know anything about McKenney?”
“Nope. This will be my first time. I can collate data. I can be a spy.”
“You’re my spy, then. Collect data on all aspect of Life. Send it to headquarters when we are off world.”
“Oh, this is so exciting. Thank you.
Brian left the Cockpit for the Grand Salon. This space was intended to represent the seagoing yachts of ancient Earth. The wood used was mostly teak with Eridani-grown walnut. The chairs were made from Hornbeast leather and were overstuffed to almost pillow softness. A game table had a Tri-d projector which rested in a small alcove was lifted up to project entertainment. The game table was mainly for cards. It came with poker chips for those times he wanted to play poker with someone. The couch was set aft of the game table. This gave it and the comfortable chair great view of the Trid projection.
He sat down in the easy chair and put his feet up on the matching ottoman. Within a moment of stillness he fell asleep.
A LICK OF KANDI
Brian woke up to a loud three-note tone. He looked at the digital chronometer above the window to the cockpit. He had been asleep for a couple hours.
“I think I found something you might like to see, sir,” said Amarantha.
“What is it?”
“It’s on trid. May I activate the projector?” Amarantha sounded excited.
“Okay.”
The Trid projector rose from the top of the game table. The lights dimmed, and he could see a vast expanse of grass. Then he saw it. Teeing up on the third hole of the opening round of the tournament was a woman wearing lemon yellow shorts, Yellow Knit golf shirt and a white visor with the Pendit logo. She knocked the stuffing out of the ball, and it rose majestically on a windless day.
Brian knew that whoever was the sponsor for this was paying a pretty penny in Hypercom fees to bring live Tri-d to Eridani. Perhaps the subscription fees they were able to charge for the coverage. Eridani was golf mad, and they treated Kandi Kane as their little sister. If they knew the private Kandace as he did they might be shocked. Her Q rating might actually go up if she was found out to be a private sexpot.
He watched the whole game. He rejoiced for every birdie, triumphed for every eagle, and groaned for every bogey. It was only the first round, but she walked away from the course, five under par.
He had bounded out of his chair and exulted for her. Then the Tri-d changed to a head. When he saw it, he wondered if he was still watching tri-d. Then the head spoke.
“Hello, lover,” she said in her Suzi Q voice.
“Hello, Kandace.”
“Thank you for that. It’s been Kandi all day today. Where are you standing?”
“This is the Grand Salon of my palatial Starship, The Amarantha.”
“Do you have quarters on that ship?”
“Yes, I do.”
“Show me that, and I’ll show you mine.”
“Amarantha, Can you put that Hypercom call on the Trid in my quarters?”
“Transferring”
Brian walked into his quarters. The Trid unit was in the overhead. He could see her face.
“This is my room and me.”
He turned to see the perspective change. Kandace was reclining on her bed, naked. It took Brian ten seconds to shuck his own clothes.
While he was reconnecting with Kandace Kane, a message was received. Amarantha duly noted it she put it on the priority queue.
Orders to Brian Butler of Amarantha
When ready in all respects, you are ordered to proceed to Alphacent and complete Gold Rush. You must depart by local noon tomorrow.
I'M LEAVING ON A STARSHIP.
Brian enjoyed Kandi’s surprise. He was never one for solo entertainment. If a woman wanted to join in all the better. The call and Kandi were just too sexy to resist. He stretched out on his bed. Then he remembered that he had to be off before local noon. He checked the chronometer on top of the bedstead. It was five in the morning. He went into his galley and heated up a breakfast. He ate it. Then he returned to the cockpit. He sat down on his couch and Amarantha moved his chair to his position.
“Begin lift off checklist,” Brian ordered.
“Destination.”
“Alphacent.”
“Destination entered. Do you wish to enter hyper at the end of the Eridani Hyper exclusion zone.”
“That's affirmed.”
When humans learned the trick to moving faster than light, it took someone developing the gravity generators and repulsers to realize that all he had to do was generate a spherical null gravity field of a specific density around a ship. At the moment that occurred the ship was effectively no longer in space-time but the space between space called hyperspace. The momentum that a ship had was the direction the ship traveled in hyper. The motive force was provided by the pressure that space exerted over hyperspace. It is like what happens when you try to squeeze a soapy pearl with your finger. Only space exerts this pressure on a full gravity ball along the entirety of travel.
There is one caveat in traveling using a null grav bubble. If you try to enter a gravity field of sufficient strength, “Bad Things” can happen. The gravity of enough strength will not allow a ship to enter hyperspace normally or will result in a collision with space itself. On Alphacent in Touchdown is a very famous store that was near McKenney Starport. A group of criminals tried to escape from the police. They hit upon the bright idea of hypering while in the atmosphere. They disappeared and reappeared two years later embedded in the northwest wall of the store. The highbrow mathematical type posited that the ship actually entered hyper and moved all one mile in two years and merged with the wall. They did not try to rescue anyone. Two years had passed, and they would have run out of life support more than eighteen months ago.
“Calculating Hyper plot.”
Since Hypering was straight line travel. Some routes require that the ship leave hyper and then reorient on the new course and then hyper again. Planets in large gravity fields like a nebula can take up to 10 hyperings to enter or leave the planet. There are certain points in space where the most common courses to a destination intersect. These intersections points are called Hyperinterlink. Some of the most popular points are tended by space stations that can replenish food, Radamite, atmosphere, and water. They can also perform most repairs. If two of these stations set up shop at the same point, the competition can be fatal.
“The Pad’s roof has retracted to full position. We are now clear to take off.”
Brian looked at all the tell-tales. He agreed that he could take off when necessary. He touched the “on” button for his Auxiliary Power Unit. Brian gave Cody on the ground in front of his ship the sign he was going to blow the lines off his boat. Brian had the ship eject the lines. Cody gave the sequence complete signal. Then he saluted once more and headed for the Takeoff bunker.
The book said that you wait for five minutes and then you could start the Big Jets. Brian pressed the Start button on number 1 Starjet. The jet caught at the right moment. He put Number one engine into idle. He turned off both Auxiliary Power Units. He started number two from the power being generated by number one. Then he engaged the lifting null grav. He reached on the left side of his chair and found the collective. He lifted that lever just a fraction. The weight on struts indicators went all out. Then he pulled them up. He rose through the roof of the Starport.
“Traffic control, PV-267, cleared starport roof. Need clearance into orbit.”
“Just a minute. I need to clear airspace of flying grav-cars. Okay. You are cleared for lift off into orbit. Once in orbit, contact orbit control.”
“Will do, traffic control.”
Brian continued to pull up on the collective. The Atmosphere in front of him changed color until it was black and sprinkled with stars.
This next part was a little tricky. Brian had to shut down several systems and at the same time use the Starjets and the yoke to enter the course corridor that they wanted him to fly for at least fifty thousand miles from the atmosphere.
“Amarantha, you handle the shutdowns while I fly the course.”
“I concur.”
“Orbit control this is PV-267. I need clearance to the Hyper exclusion zone.”
“Confirmed. We are projecting a course on your course overlays. Follow that course. You may fly at max speed.”
Brian thought that was an unusual statement. Then he remembered who he was. They may not know him, but they know Z02. Z02 cannot be delayed by law.
He looked at his course overlays. He saw a series of rectangular boxes. As he turned the yoke and the pedals underneath he saw the rectangles move until he was flying through the squares. Once he got used to the responsiveness of the ship he bumped the thrust bar.
The reason for the constant need to maintain thrust was the existence of the null grav generators on the ship, including the ones on the vehicles. The null grav cores inflict drag on any vehicle using them. If you tried to do the old spacer trick of thrusting and coasting on our inertia. Null grav reintroduced drag to spatial maneuvering. The pull also worked on the vehicles on the surface of a planet. Accelerate, and you can coast with ever decreasing speed until you are at rest relative to the system.
Brian could care less. He had been given the green light to accelerate to his top speed. He did so and then back down on thrust to maintain the momentum. He played around with the yoke and pedal controls.
Amarantha felt more like a Starfighter than a starship. “Amarantha search engineering logs. What was the Amarantha’s design specs originally for?”
“The Genesis of this Class of starship originated in a bid by Cassaways Limited for the StarFleet’s heavy fighter program.”
“The original design of this vessel is as a heavy Starfighter?”
“It was for that reason. Cassaways won the contract and also won the authorization to make and sell as many of the ships as possible.”
“How many have they sold?”
“To date one hundred twenty-two.”
“Hide the needle in the haystack.”
“I beg your pardon.”
“Something my mother used to say. It means it is best to hide something in a large number of something.”
“I understand. You want this ship to appear as just one of the many.”
“You’re catching on. Time to Zone boundary?”
“At current speed one hour.”
“Let’s see how well you fly. Maintain course and speed. Do not engage hyper when we leave the hyper exclusion zone. I want to push the button. From time to time I may order you to hyper when we are ready. Understand?”
“I am to initiate hyper only when expressly ordered by you. Taking control of the ship. Maintaining course and speed.”
Brian moved his pilot’s couch back. He took a real look at
the Cockpit. It was a side by side arrangement. The second couch was designated as the co-pilots position, but there was no difference between the screens, buttons, and controls, except for arrangement. The thing that was fascinating were the two computer panels, one on the left and right side of the cockpit. Beyond the panels were the computers cores with enough computing power to plot a hyper course, or multiple hyper courses. These cores also ran the various systems on the ship. Overseeing all this computer power was Amarantha herself. Because the cores were here, there was an airtight door that also meant a secure entry.
“ How big are the computer wells?
“They are twenty feet tall.”
“How full of computer equipment are the wells?”
“Sixty percent full.”
“Why only sixty percent?”
“It was deemed by the Intelligence committee to be a waste of finances to put that much computing power in a throwaway ship or at least a ship that might be subject to combat,
“In closed Parliamentary session, the Emir vetoed the measure. No further bills were passed on this subject leaving the Director to spend her budget as she sees fit to meet the ESS mandate. When next you return to Eridani you will be given two weeks leave while the computer is upgraded.”
“You sound like you are looking forward to the upgrade.”
“Yes. It means that this ship will be a fully capable signal intelligence ship. The ship will take advantage of being where you are to glean information for the analysts. Ten-minute warning to the hyper point.”
CHAPTER EIGHT
In Bound
IN BOUND.
“Ten…9…8…7…6…5…4…3…2…1”
Brian slapped the hyper button. The gray swirling clouds of dust that made up the only visual in hyperspace were gone replaced by the stars and two larger stars. Supposedly they were in orbit at the Heliopause of Alpha Centauri. Right now Amarantha was using the sensors to determine if they made their target.
