To Touch the Stars (Founding of the Federation Book 2)

by Chris Hechtl

  They'd had a few accidents, one fatality so far. A couple dozen casualties, most of them minor. Two robots had also been destroyed; another seventeen had been banged up. He'd also heard reports from the supervisors of a couple hot tempered incidents and one fist fight. They had come down on all of it; you didn't screw around with a temper in space. If you couldn't keep a cool head, you didn't belong in space. Period. You either focused or you stayed inside.

  The media was all over the project of course. Roman's security robots kept their intrusive snoops at bay the best they could. He'd had to fire two employees for carrying pocket cameras and snapping photos or video. He wasn't sure if they'd been spies or just doing it for friends or the media or what. He wasn't sure if he cared, only that both incidents had been an unwanted distraction. But they were finally making progress. Another four months at the stride they were hitting … barring any hiccups of course. It was time to keep his fingers crossed.

  -*-*-^-*-*-

  While Sven and others worked out the engineering details, Kaku and the dolphins worked with the coders and physics experts on refining the helm simulation and controls. The dolphins tended to roll the ship and throw the navigators off track during simulations; even the computer couldn't cope from time to time. “The problem is, the dolphins keep wandering off course,” the navigator said, shaking his head. He hadn't been keen about having the dolphins involved in the projects; this just proved it. But he grudgingly had to admit the damn fins could “swim” the ship better than anyone could. Now if they'd just follow directions! “Either they get agoraphobic, or they just wander off to see what is up or down. They don't see or understand the course bearings we need them to follow.”

  “And you lose track,” Jamey said sympathetically. The navigator gave him a curt nod.

  “Space big,” Kaku replied with a nod. “A lot to see.” His head thrashed about as he simulated looking around.

  “Yes, but if you don't stay on course, follow the ball we'll get lost. Then the ship will die. You'll die,” the navigator said, eying the cetacean. “And you don't care do you?” he asked, half exasperated.

  “Push,” Chri'nick'trill said softly. “No walls,” she said, rolling. “Big. Space big. Hard to get …” she flicked her flippers in agitation.

  “Hard to get your bearings?” Jamey interpreted, looking thoughtful.

  Kathy frowned, digesting that then she caught on. “She's right,” Kathy murmured. She looked at the two dolphins then to the six humans in the compartment. So far the junior navigator, Trevor the cyberneticist, and Levare had remained silent in the discussion. “In their habitats they have walls around them. We were always concerned about their developing agoraphobic tendencies so we incorporated virtual windows and the vid screen.”

  “To broaden their horizons,” Jorn one of the junior navigators said with a nod.

  “Yes,” Kathy said with a return nod. She turned to the female fin. “You are suggesting we create walls?” she asked carefully.

  “What about a horizon line too?” Jamey asked. “Something simple? Or make it really like water?”

  “I think we should keep the to the KISS principle,” Kathy murmured thoughtfully. “The horizon line is a good one, we can … I mean you two can keep the ship oriented.”

  “Not understand,” Kaku said, bobbing his head and twisting in the tank. His agitation made his partner sputter and move aside in annoyance. He settled down when she clucked at him in reproach.

  “The orientation of the ship,” Jamey said, as the navigator opened his mouth to reply. He used his hand to describe the ship. “When you roll the ship, its orientation changes.” He rolled his hand a bit. “If you do that too often and the navigators loose track, that can throw the ship off course.”

  “What we're proposing is …” Kathy frowned thoughtfully and looked at Jamey. “I know we can do it, but a box? Really?”

  “And a horizon line for orientation,” Jamey said. He looked at the virtual image of Trevor. “Can your people handle that?”

  “A box around them, to form a limit?” Trevor asked. Jamey nodded. “That is easy, a skybox. It's been done in VR for ages. And a horizon line for an attitude indicator?”

  “The numbers should suffice, if they'd only pay attention to them,” Ben White feather, the lead navigator, grumbled. He looked with irritation at the fins.

  “Humans and fins are visual. You have to give them something they can connect to on an instinctive level. Flight instruments aren't just numbers; they are visual too,” Levare said thoughtfully. He nodded. “Think your coders can handle it?”

  “Sure,” Trevor replied with a wave of his hand. “We'll get the build off to you in a day or two,” he said.

  “Thanks Trevor,” Levare said, sagging a bit in relief. He'd been worried this was a game stopper. From the sound of it, they'd had it all but solved.

  “Next time go to Omall or Asira. They are supposed to be handling this,” Trevor replied in his mechanical voice.

  Levare scowled. “I tried. They said they couldn't do anything since their schedule was overloaded. Both refused to attend this meeting,” he said.

  “I see. I'll have a chat with them,” Trevor said and cut the connection abruptly. Jamey winced. Going over the coders’ heads to the head of coding cybernetics and security was asking for trouble. There would be some repercussions and probably some coding bugs to work out since they'd throw sloppy work at it just out of spite. He frowned at Levare, but the other man wasn't paying attention to him.

  “So, if we create a box for you to stay in, plus …”

  “Box?” Ben protested. “Like that will work?”

  “Blinders,” Kathy said. “Keep them oriented on the plane we need the ship to go on. We can see if the coders can use a sky and water image for references.”

  Jorn nodded, poking his boss. “It's possible. As long as the box doesn't move and keeps them in the center of the field. We need them to realize the limit is there.”

  “Space. We can do space,” Kaku said. “We fly drones,” the dolphin sputtered. “In the yard and around the stations. Space easy. This hard. Harder,” the fin said, correcting himself. “Long, boring,” he said.

  “But you had something to orient yourself. The station was near, an object, something like that, right?” Kathy asked. The dolphin nodded. “What we're going to do is the same here but in the computer. It will give you a reference to stay oriented and on course.” She jotted a note, then added the one Jorn brought up about the box had to be mobile, not fixed. Then she added another, something to spice up the sim if possible. Games, something to make the dolphins keep their focus and alertness. Something to combat boredom. She wasn't sure what, but she knew it would be interesting for the coders to do, something different.

  “Oh, okay,” the dolphin replied.

  Levare glanced at the others and then nodded. “Good. Fine, that sounds like a possible solution. We'll see how it turns out. Now, next on the agenda …”

  -*-*-^-*-*-

  Five months later the ship went through its first series of system tests as the ship was buttoned up for the first time. Falcon HST 200A and B tugs pulled the ship clear of the yard to do drive and force emitter tests. Jamey became involved in the fine tuning the hyperdrive systems as well as the hypersensors.

  He was glad of the work; it finally meant he was useful again. Three and a half years of playing referee or consultant sucked. He knew he was strong on both hardware and theory, but he ached like everyone else for the ship to be finished and under way. Grand blocks had made construction much easier and quicker. He understood the theory, but every time he saw it he, like the public, expected it to be done. He'd been amused by his own impatience.

  Of course, there were the usual antics from the public. The media went into hysterics and whipped up a fire storm about an early launch. The public went nuts for nearly a week until Miss Cole finally put the matter to rest after repeatedly explaining they were only performing system tests. She had
stamped out some of the media hype but only when Jack authorized Mars Network News to be on board during an engine burn test did they finally seem to get it. MNN had an understanding with the company, though they maintained a neutral stance. The chief engineer, Wen Shiku, explained to the reporter that they needed to test the systems, and firing the engine within the building slip was a bad idea. She seemed to get it.

  Chief Shiku was a damn good engineer despite being a short, quiet guy. He was hands-on, patient, and clearly loved his job. When people got uptight, he just let it roll and dug in; something Jamey liked about the 42-year-old male. He had wise black eyes that seemed to penetrate to your soul, making you feel tiny when you tried to offer some excuse for something or other. As a Martian he knew engineering inside and out; he'd been an understudy of the Irons family when he had been growing up. His hands were scarred up by cuts and nicks, but he didn't seem to care. Ships were his life and his love.

  Jamey sighed as he rubbed the aching small of his back. Getting into tight places on the drive to fine tune this or that hadn't been a concern when on the design board. He'd made it clear in memos to Charlie that the next ship needed more room. He shook his head as he sat there and flipped through his web crawler's news of the day. From the look of it, there was some fringe crap about the ship being declared unfit when she returned to a new slip for fitting out and final construction and tuning.

  They'd find out differently in a couple weeks he thought. A month tops, when they were ready to launch. He frowned thoughtfully. That meant the crew would start moving on board in two weeks if the schedule held. It also meant the invites to the launch ceremony would go out once they had a firm schedule. Which meant they had to get it right, he thought with a sigh as he went back to laying on the wheeled crawler.

  “Why I didn't figure out a better way to access this damn thing I'll never know,” he muttered.

  “Problem?” Chief Shiku asked.

  “No, just the usual. I keep wanting to strangle the guy who designed this. Then I remember it was me,” Jamey quipped.

  “Too true,” the chief replied in amusement.

  “I know Charlie said space was at a premium, but we should have given a lot more thought to spacing stuff out. I mean, this is a pain,” Jamey said, working his way carefully around an ODN line. The optical data network line was a direct feed from the bridge. The outer sheath was armored for its own protection, but he still did his best not to touch it. But that meant when he swung his left elbow out a bit too sharply he caught it just right on an aluminum casing right at the sweet spot. He swore, rubbing the thing the best he could.

  “You all right?”

  “You know it's not funny to hit your funny bone?” Jamey half laughed, half snarled.

  “Yeah, been there, done that. Are you going to be under there all day?” the Chief asked patiently.

  “I'm going,” Jamey sighed. “This thing really is a finicky beast. He plugged his multitester into the port then scowled when it read the same readings as outside. That meant there was something wrong, either with the port connection or the cable. “We're going to need to do a connection test with the cable. If that's not it, then we've got a more serious issue to deal with.”

  “Let's hope it's the cable then,” the chief replied with a sigh. “I'll pop the probe in here,” he said, pulling the jack.

  “Starting with pin one,” Jamey said.

  “Good,” Shiku replied when the LED lit green.

  “Great, one down, sixty-three to go,” Jamey muttered as he moved his probe to the next pin.

  -*-*-^-*-*-

  Hannah was excited when she entered the dorms and full time college. It wasn't just her own personal situation; there was an air about it. Man had a new frontier, one she was ready to explore. Her brother was up to his neck in it, and she was both proud and scared of what the future might bring for him. She wanted in on it too though, despite the risks. But first she had to explore another frontier. It was her first time away from home.

  She was young, barely 14, only a couple years older than her brother had been when he'd attended the same college. Her father had had to sign a ton of wavers acknowledging that she was a minor still. She had to report to a counselor daily and was forbidden to get involved with any of the fraternities on campus. She had a monitor monitoring her location at all times … and had to even consent to the indignity of random drug and alcohol testing.

  It was all good though; she was stretching her wings she reminded herself. She could file for emancipation if she wanted to rid herself of the noisome busybodies, but she reminded herself that they were trying to protect her. Or at least that was what they said. Some she wasn't at all sure of. Oh, making sure she had enough food, was eating regularly, no health issues, no bullying … okay. Staying on the straight and narrow, not going nuts … okay. But the others … The first week meant she was checked on daily, sometimes every few hours, which started to drive her insane. The dorm monitor was the worst; the girl didn't know how to knock! Twice she'd nearly caught Hannah undressed.

  Finally she went on the lookout, deciding it was best to embarrass the shit out of the woman to get her to back off. When she noticed the dorm monitor coming her way at her regular time, she quickly sprinted to the shower and turned it on as she shut the bathroom door. When the woman unlocked and entered her room she, of course, heard the shower and singing and quickly retreated in embarrassment. After that the intrusions didn't quite stop but at least dropped to a minor check in passing.

  A couple weeks into settling down she received a belated congratulations from her brother for graduating high school. The moment she had free time between classes she called him. He had expected the call so he opened up a video conference.

  “You are so pathetic!” she scolded him. “I'm not surprised, not really hurt either. Okay maybe a little,” she said. He missed her birthdays too. “It would have been nice if you'd been here though,” she said, feeling a pang. Her cheering section had consisted of her dad who'd had to cut out early when a problem with Array 2 and a sticky motor had come up.

  Jamey hunched his shoulders defensively, embarrassed and upset over how he had missed out. He had an edict memory; there really was no excuse. He could also have programmed the time into his schedule or even requested the time off. He mumbled another apology to her, eyes downcast.

  She smiled and recognized how contrite and upset he was so she forgave him. “Besides, it isn't like you can't watch it again. They streamed it, and dad, of course, recorded it. He's made two of our neighbors watch it already,” she said, smiling.

  Jamey snorted. Knowing their proud papa that was indeed true.

  “You still have your head in the clouds I see. When are you going to settle down?” Hannah mockingly teased.

  “Gee, a girlfriend,” Jamey muttered, now blushing with a different form of embarrassment. “Now that we've finally gotten through the worst of the project, I can sink all my energy on the problem,” he said. “Can't be what, ten whole women here who are single?” he chuckled.

  “If that?” Hannah chuckled. “At least they are all your type,” she teased wickedly.

  He shook his head, smiling. “You are giving dad's heart a run for its money. Boy trouble I bet,” he probed, turning the tables on her.

  She shrugged, clearly bemused by the change in direction the conversation had gone. She decided she'd let him off the hook for the moment. “No, not much,” she said in a thoughtful voice. She tapped her chin with a finger. “He had a bit of anxiety a couple of times, I was fairly sure he had an anxiety attack at the prom, but well, there are not a lot of options when half of the school is virtual and from home,” she said.

  “True,” he replied, remembering his own experience. “A good way to keep an eye on you though,” he said maliciously.

  “So, back to what we were talking about …” Hannah said, grinning coyly. “Anyone on your end? Am I about to have a sister-in-law?” Hannah teased maliciously.

  He sn
orted. “Hardly. There is one gal, but she's twice my age and not really interested. Or not interested in anything serious,” he said, remembering Kathy's flirting during the Keel laying ceremony. She had backed off since then, barely a “hi, how are you” in passing. He'd barely seen her over the past three years. She had been tied up in the dolphins; he had been tied up in the drive and refreshing his engineering credentials. “So … a real college? Dare I ask …”

  “Yes,” she answered, rolling her eyes. “I did indeed follow the trail you blazed; it was easier for me. I'm doing fine, thanks for asking. I only have a few courses in person; most of the rest are online. You know the deal, in person classes are hands-on, biology, etc.”

  “Biology?” he asked, raising an eyebrow. He was surprised by her focus and career path. He'd taken biology in junior high, not college.

  Hannah's eyes flashed dangerously. “I'm not your clone, brother of mine; I go my own path. It just so happens it's on the general course you've already set,” she said with dignity. He nodded and decided to change the subject and let her cool off a bit. Obviously there was something going on there, a sore spot.

  He told her in general terms how Daedalus’s construction was going, and the next project he was on, which was working on refining the design of the hyperdrive. “I'm trying to push the envelope but I don't think we can get her above the alpha band.”

  “You still think a ship can get into the beta band?”

  He smiled. “But of course,” he hammed. She smirked. “Hey, we've gotten this far … okay, we haven't yet, but we're getting there. I think it's doable with the right power source and powerful enough force emitters. That and the hyperdrive. I still think the equations are right, there are different levels in each band of hyperspace, and different bands of hyperspace as well. Getting to them though …” He shook his head. “It takes an exponential amount of energy to move up to each band.”