Cindy stands up, and walking closer to the view screen makes a decision that is far easier said than done. “Peter, arrange for any crew members who wish to view this spectacle, to do so. We will stay in orbit for four hours, and then depart.”
Everyone on the bridge is surprised at the conviction in her voice. Peter quickly confers with Radclyf and Hayato to arrange for crew visits. The next few hours find people coming to the bridge, being frisked, and then allowed entry. One man objects to being ‘mauled’, but once he is facing the barrel of a gun, decides that his morals have been properly re-adjusted. Peter makes no explanation nor apology to the crew about the security precautions. He had hoped to draw out any remaining terrorists. He does not believe for one second that they got them all. That would be just too easy and convenient. Finding no one of interest actually bothers him more than he cares to admit.
Patrick is one of the crewmen that come to the bridge, He shrugs his shoulders as his toolkit is confiscated during his visit. He is quite awed by the spectacle, and offers a few private thoughts to his lost workmates. Feeling a little better that their deaths were not for nothing, he leaves the bridge in higher spirits than when he arrived. For the first time since the launch, he finally understands why they had to do this. He offers the bridge crew a nod in respect as he leaves.
Once the last of the ship’s crew has gone, Cindy gets down to business. “Andrew, Joe, plot us a course for Scorpius. John, take us out of this system.”
While the alert sounds throughout the ship that they will be departing soon, Andrew and Joe confer. After a few minutes of debate, they provide John with a course to follow. Engaging the upper thrusters only, John pushes the Terran away from the useless planet, then in a maneuver he has been wanting to practice, rolls the ship using her lateral thrusters. The spinning stars make Cindy queasy again as she watches. Once the planet is below and behind them, John engages the sub-light engines. He ramps them up to eighty percent. The entire process takes mere minutes. He is pleased with the efficiency of the ship, for despite its size, it can maneuver well.
Fifteen minutes later, John turns to Cindy and says, “There is nothing between us and Scorpios. The main engines are charged, and awaiting your order.”
“Punch it.” Cindy says authoritatively.
The bridge crew smiles as John engages the main drive. He studies the Gamin console carefully this time, watching as various systems activate in sequence. Dampening shields visibly glow as they engage, enveloping the ship. Hmm the RMC, engages then this other icon changes. He quickly looks to his notes again and finds, ‘IGD’. Alright! What the heck is that? He has to refer to more notes to find out. Internal Gravimetric Dampeners, okay but what the heck do they do? He keeps reading in fascination. Oh, they work with the Dampening Shields. So, if they work with the Dampening Shields, why do they come on after the RMC? Damn what is that thing again? He is getting hopelessly confused as he flicks through more notes. Ah “RMC’, Relativistic Mass Compensator, okay that’s what it is, but what does it do? He scratches his head, oblivious to the looks from those around him. I must understand how this all works; the monkey see monkey do philosophy is not for me. He continues to ponder the process even as more of the bridge crew looks to him curiously.
Cindy watches John with admiration as he flicks from note to note. He is so intent, he misses the shift as the main drive engages. The boring looking white dots are instantly replaced with a beautiful kaleidoscope of colors that seem to besiege them.
“John, you look puzzled. Don’t be, you got this.” Cindy states quite confidently.
John looks back at her a little blankly, his concentration broken. “Uh, oh, well, anyone can push a button. I just want to know what’s really going on.” He returns to his notes for a second, and then pauses as he realizes sheepishly that he has forgotten to set a higher speed than the default of one block. Sliding the main drive bar to five, he watches the forward view as the colors increase in their intensity.
Cindy supportingly says, “You spend as much time as you need, as long as you’re fresh upon our arrival at Scorpius.” She frowns a little and asks curiously. “Just when will we be arriving?”
Distracted by the beauty of their flight, both Andrew and Joe are caught completely off guard. It takes them over five minutes before they come to a consensus.
Andrew is the one who finally answers, his voice is full of uncertainty. “Well our best guess is three days, give or take. We will have to drop to sub light when we get closer, to make a course correction.”
Cindy does not like the lack of confidence that emanates from her bridge crew right now. Time for a pep talk, she thinks. “All we have to do is fly to a few systems until we find at least one Earth-like world. That’s our mission people.” She smiles as she relays what they already know to be true. “Our reactors can power us for twenty years. We have food for at least one year. The two hydroponics experts feel that they can expand this further, if need be. Our zero gravity stint made a real mess down there, but they are getting things back in order. Besides, I don’t expect this mission to take more than a couple of months, not at this rate anyway.”
George silently whistles to himself. Well fifteen years on the reactors now, give or take, we really purged the cores for that power boost. We won’t be needing them for long anyway.
This thought may yet come back to haunt him.
Location:
Starship Terran
Scorpius, GJ667C
The next few days allow John the opportunity to train both shuttle crews on the Terran’s flight systems. They are even present for the mid-flight course adjustment. Dropping to sub-light once again causes GUS to work at maximum as the influx of data threatens to overwhelm its systems. This time however, the computer technicians are a little more prepared. Additional cooling systems have been put in place, complements of George and Olaf.
The crew settles into a routine as life aboard the starship slowly turns from a novelty into practicality. The only issue is that the slightly heavier gravity is still causing an unusual number of minor injuries. People trip, drop things, and sprain wrists and ankles, as they misjudge the weight of objects. The kitchen staff has the worst of it; spilling pots of hot liquids, and dropping trays. They have to adjust from years of what was normal, to this new environment. Thankfully the atmosphere is no longer the ghastly thick and foul smelling stuff the Gamin call air.
Due to a combination of factors, the trek to Scorpius takes five days. A little longer than originally expected, but no one minds the additional time. The mess hall becomes quite a popular place as there is little to do during the flight.
Cindy awakens to the annoying sound of an off-beat metronome, the room’s communicator. She touches a panel that is next to her bed. “What is it?” She says as she stifles a yawn.
Joe responds excitedly. “We’re close to Scorpius, and one of the planets may be Earth-like.”
Cindy is instantly wide awake, and orders. “Assemble the bridge crew.” She looks down at what she is wearing, hmm can’t wear this to the bridge, and adds. “I will be there shortly.”
Cindy ponders. Why does everything have to happen when I am sleeping? But she is not really annoyed, the possibility of an Earth-like world is well worth the interruption.
Joe replies, “Oh, take your time, we’re close to three hours out.”
She sits down on her bed and rubs her forehead, she is mildly annoyed now. What is this? Hurry up and wait?
Cindy arrives at the bridge twenty minutes later to find the rest of the bridge crew all talking very excitedly. Even George is over at Joe’s terminal, encased in his suit as always. He even eats wearing that thing. She realizes. The thought fades quickly as everyone seems to be talking to her at once.
Finally, after a few moments, she lifts a hand and waits for everyone to quiet down. She nods to Joe and asks, “Joe, what have we got then?”
Joe grins as he answers. “Well, the symbol that tells us of a planet’s suit
ability, well it’s, well, come and look at it for yourself. When we dropped to sub-light, the planet symbol changed to this.” Joe points to his console excitedly.
Cindy walks over and looks at the panel. She can understand now why she had to look. Indeed, the Gamin symbols build on each other, and if she is understanding this correctly, it shows that the planet they are headed to is similar to Earth. She looks to George questioningly.
George replies with assuredness. “According to the Gamin systems, one planet in this system is habitable.”
Cindy looks back at the symbol, then ahead at the small white dot in the center of the screen. A few brief flashes of light accompany the view.
The next couple of hours go by very quickly as the bridge crew tries to gain more information. Frustrations build as they learn nothing new, and all they can do is wait. John pushes the sub-light engines to ninety-five percent, then ninety-six percent, in his quest to get answers sooner. No one seems to notice that the dwindling energy reserves are now below one percent.
The reactor crews watch with concern as one after the other, the nuclear reactors ramp up beyond one hundred percent. Knowing the bridge crew is monitoring the situation, the control team simply observes as temperatures slowly climb. Soon enough they are injecting coolants, and diverting as much heat as they can, to purpose built heat exchangers. As the reactors pass the one hundred-ten percent mark, the team just shakes their heads in displeasure at the stress being put on their systems.
The computer technicians are also extremely busy keeping GUS cool as it operates at maximum performance for hours. The additional efforts by George and Olaf though helpful, only help to slow the computer’s inevitable shutdown.
It is not until the Gamin systems divert additional power to the life support systems that George becomes aware of their potential plight. With all of them focusing ahead, they failed to observe Cindy’s order of having power reserves upon their arrival. He rechecks everything, and still cannot figure out what is causing the power drain.
Finally, George has to speak up. “John, you may want to slow us down and give GUS a rest for a while, we have been pushing our systems too hard.”
Joe switches his display to review the ship’s power situation. His jaw drops at the readouts. He gulps nervously and turns to Cindy, ashen faced.
John slows the Terran to twenty percent of light speed while he wonders what is happening.
The hairs on the back of Cindy’s neck rise at Joe’s expression. She asks with trepidation. “Okay, what’s going on?”
Joe replies slowly. “GUS can perform the tasks assigned to it, but in comparison to the Gamin systems, it is inefficient, and slow. And let’s not forget that we are operating this ship with a fraction of its designed power requirements.”
Cindy sighs, she was recently thinking along these very lines. “Okay, Joe what’s our power reserve?”
Joe is reluctant to respond. “The reactors are running at one hundred-fifteen percent, yet our reserves are down to below one percent. I can barely read what we have anymore.”
Another flash of light comes from the main viewer. This one catches everyone’s attention. They all look forward at the scene outside. They are shocked to see that they have flown into an area filled with tiny particles. Sometime in the past, the gravitational forces of this triple star system either ripped apart a planetary body, or merely prevented one from forming in the first place. Whatever the case, the Terran now finds itself being peppered by hundreds of tiny particles, and occasionally larger ones, that disintegrate in bright flashes.
Cindy does not have to ponder her decision for long. “Divert all power to the navigational shields. Get us out of here!”
John plots a course upward, the shortest path out of the orbiting debris field. Lucky for them all, he brought them into the system from above, and thus it should not take them long to get out. Joe is about to cut the power to GUS when he notices that life support is diverting additional power to that area. Oh my, if GUS is that hot, I dare not shut off its power, it has to cool gradually. He is in the same dilemma with the reactors. “Damn,” he mutters to himself quietly.
Joe taps a few commands onto his laptop, and then with a sinking feeling, reports his findings. “We will lose power to the navigational shields in thirty minutes. But it will take us longer than that to get out of this debris field. And before you ask, changing speed won’t help, not enough anyway.”
Cindy is known for her lateral thinking, but she is way out of her element right now. Turning to George, she almost pleads, “Tell me you have something.”
George has been going over system after system, but he too, has run out of ideas. There is just too little time to do anything. The minutes tick by as a solution eludes them all.
John has been focusing on following the shortest path out of the debris field. He glances down at his console and stares at a symbol in surprise, it is lit. “The main drive is almost fully charged. Can’t we divert that power?”
George answers depressingly. “That system draws power automatically, we can’t even stop the drain, nor can we divert power back.”
Something about this clicks in Cindy’s head, she speaks her mind hoping her thoughts generate an idea. “The Gamin designed this ship so that no matter how dire the situation, the main drive gets power….” Her voice trails off bleakly.
Joe, his light brown eyes frantically watch as the flashes of light from outside increase in intensity, draining the very life from the ship’s failing energy reserves. As the level drops lower and lower he cannot help but tap the screen before him, as though it will make the graph move. He reports stoically, “Power levels will be depleted in three minutes. That last volley took almost everything we had left.”
Cindy frowns as she considers a radical idea. The others misreading her thoughts, and go about their tasks. It can’t be that simple, can it? She thinks as she looks at John while the seconds tick by.
“Punch it!” Cindy blurts loudly.
Almost everyone stops what they doing to look at her incredulously. John however, his training taking over, immediately complies with her order. “Hope you’re right! Let’s find out.” He says as he touches the main drive symbol.
Joe’s jaw drops in surprise, while all Andrew can do is look outside as he faces certain death. Peter lights his pipe, which immediately fills the bridge with its scent as he draws on it, and puffs out clouds of smoke. The filters draw away the smoky ‘toxin’ in short order.
The Terran leaves behind a fiery trail as it escapes the particle field at the speed of light. The energy reserves in the main drive are sufficient to propel them safely away. John shuts the main drive down, and then sets the sub-light speed to zero as well, causing the ship to simply drift in space.
Peter raises his eyebrows in surprise, and then puts his pipe out. “Apologies.”
Andrew’s wide eyes are transfixed on the view ahead, while his fingertips are white from gripping the console before him.
Joe looks to his Gamin terminal, then his laptop, and voices a celebratory cheer. “We made it! Power reserves are virtually zero, but all the reactors are still operating, so we will be fine.” He is surprised to find that during those few short minutes the dampening shield drained virtually every shred of reserve power.
Cindy feels relieved that her act of desperation was in fact the right decision. She questions Joe, “How long until everything is charged up? And I mean everything, every capacitor for every system!”
Joe scratches his head as he tries to fathom a way to calculate a time. He shrugs his shoulders as he ventures. “My best guess would be, twenty-four hours.”
Cindy gazes around the bridge in disappointment. Her crew has let her down today, and they know it. She stands up and says, “We’re still learning how to fly this alien ship, let’s stay focused people.” With that, she leaves the bridge.
Twenty-four hours is barely enough time. The main engines required four hours to charge, pretty much tak
ing all available power, next came the capacitors for the thrusters. Finally, the sub-light engines charged their reserve power cells. During this time, George, Olaf, and a number of maintenance crews, scour the ship from stem to stern, examining every section for damage.
Cindy returns to the bridge, and is well rested. Where she has been, no one can really say for sure. She sits down in her chair and scrutinizes the crew with renewed intensity. She fills the silence with her commanding tone. “Yesterday we screwed up, all of us. But we learned more about this ship in the process. We also leaned a little of each other, thus I have made notes in my mission log regarding each of you.” She makes eye contact with each of them, and then smiles warmly. “I am recommending you all be given awards for bravery.”
Andrew returns her gaze, and replies sheepishly. “Ah, Cindy, thank you. But I practically had to change my shorts.” He looks at the others who all share his sentiment.
Cindy stands up and paces the bridge. “My decision was not an easy one, but it came down to a single factor. I gave an order, and it was executed, not questioned. You all accepted my decision and were willing to face the consequences, no matter what. That is the hallmark of a team that’s coming together.”
Peter nods his head in agreement, and then claps his hands. The others join in, all their stresses fading away from their near-death situation.
Cindy gazes at the view ahead and orders, “Take us back in.”
John pilots the ship on a long route, avoiding the expansive dust cloud until a massive planet is before them. It is easily four times the size of Earth. Its swirling grey clouds elusively hide the surface below. The Gamin system reports the planet as habitable, but with its thick atmosphere and very heavy gravity, it would not be a pleasant home.
Cindy does not have to review the data for long before she comes to a decision. “Let’s not waste our time here. Andrew, plot a course to Gliese 581. John, get us out of this system.”
Initiation Series: Series One Compilation (Terran Chronicles) Page 40
