by Chris Hechtl
“Could the spur have been created by these bridges?” the captain asked from his chair. Wally turned to him in surprise. The skipper smiled indulgently. “Yes mister Pappas, I am keeping up with some of your discussions,” he said. Wally blushed slightly then shrugged. “I see,” the captain said, face dropping into a professional mask. “Something for the physics people back home to figure out I suppose,” he said with a pucker of his lips.
“We can't solve everything for them, sir,” Magnus said mildly. That earned a snort from the captain.
“Mister Pappas, plot your course. Follow the bridge wherever it may lead,” the captain ordered, waving a hand to indicate the bridge on the viewer.
-*-*-^-*-*-
Over the passage of two days the crew anxiously waited for the results. Taz, Brock, Jeff, Anita, and Wally spent a lot of time in the wardroom going over a star chart as they tried to plot the bridge's course. Finally the skipper decided it was time for the group to come clean.
“We believe it goes to HD 61347, an O class star, skipper. From there we don't know,” Wally said as he shrugged. He turned to Taz.
“We can get the general bearings but not a distance,” the junior hyper-tech said, picking up the explanation.
“What he means is, we don't know how far it goes. It may cut out at another stop along the way or keep going.”
“But it is where we need to go?” The skipper asked carefully.
“Aye, sir,” they told him in unison. The captain snorted and then nodded.
“Then by all means gentlemen, and lady,” he said, pausing to bow slightly to the blushing Anita. “Let's try it,” he ordered, straightening.
-*-*-^-*-*-
“We're lined up, skipper. Ready to try this on your command,” Wally said.
“Eeeasy does it then. Go as slow as slow. Gentle. Treat her like a lady, and she'll play nice,” he said. That earned a snort from the XO. He glanced at him out of the corner of his eye and then shrugged miniscully. “Let's not blow this,” the captain ordered. He knew he was nervous, they all were. Unfortunately he was starting to project it. That was bad, he needed to keep up a brave face and project confidence or they would lose their own.
“Is that a go?” Nak'nak'chick demanded.
“Yes. Go,” the captain ordered.
“Have we hit it yet?” the XO asked, eyes closed. The captain glanced at him and snorted at the sight of his XO strapped into his seat and clinging to the arm rests for dear life.
“You'll know it when we do,” Wally said grimly.
Slowly the ship drifted downward along her Z axis to the hyperbridge wall. “Contact in three … two … one!” Anita said as the ship's force bubble hit the outer edge of the turbulence. The ship began to shimmy as the force bubble picked up the turbulence. As they continued to drift downward, Anita was rewarded with the dubious sight of the turbulence wrapping around the ship.
“And …” Anita paused as the ship continued to buck and shimmy. Dust was kicked up, coming out of some of the areas that couldn't be easily cleaned. The ops tech sneezed. “Steady … steady. And … we're in!” Anita crowed as the turbulence backed off and they hit the mainstream of the bridge. The ship's odometer and speedometer picked up immediately.
“Well! That went smoother than expected,” the captain murmured.
“Like sticking your dick in a pig,” Wally muttered as the bridge crew cheered. That caused a lull.
“Like a what?” Anita demanded, turning on Wally.
“Um, nothing,” he replied in a small voice, hunching his shoulders to look small.
Magnus busted out laughing though. “Like a … oh frack,” he started chuckling seismic waves that rippled out and set others in the compartment off. Wally felt his ears heat to nearly unbearable levels.
“Just something my granddaddy used to say,” he said when they finally seemed to calm down. That kicked up another round of laughter.
“Are we going where we expect to be going Mister Pappas?” the captain demanded after a moment, cutting the chuckles down.
Wally cleared his throat. He wanted to be the last person to speak right at the moment but had no choice. “It looks that way, Captain. We're still on a heading to HD 61347, an O class star as predicted. Beyond that is the NGC2414 cluster in the NGC414 sector. The cluster of large B class stars,” Wally reported, voice dropping into professional tones.
“Very well. Good job everyone. Damage report?” the captain asked, turning to the ops tech.
“No operational issues right now, Captain. Some systems were addled and dropped into their secondary nets. They have been recovering.”
“Six injuries reported in the infirmary,” the XO reported as he read the LCD at his station. “All light. Mostly bumps and bruises,” he reported.
“We got off lucky. Good.”
“We're getting the hang of it,” Anita said with a smile of approval.
“Don't jinx it,” Magnus warned in ominous tones. Anita's smile slipped, and she shook her head dutifully no.
“I think we've picked up more data there. It's too bad we can't run more calculations in this though,” Wally grumbled as he worked. It was a constant job to stay ahead of the helm as the ship picked up speed.
“We'll see where this takes us,” the captain murmured, settling into his chair.
-*-*-^-*-*-
The ship exited the bridge just before the B class star WS 404. They found they were surrounded by a cluster of stars. “Now this is more like it,” the captain said in approval. “A crossroads, just what we needed.”
“Yes, but which one?”
“At least we have a lot to choose from this time. But first things first. We have some chores to attend to,” the skipper said. The XO nodded.
They refueled the ship, even managing to score a pocket of helium-3. It was under two tons, but still a victory for the refueling team to find. Helium-3 was in short supply; they had started running the reactors on a lighter mix which had caused all sorts of headaches with Cosmos and his team.
Once they were done, they jumped back into hyper. They explored for several days, not finding any bridges in the area. Finally the captain settled the discussion on where to go next by the simple expedient of going to the closest local B class star, WS 400, less than four light years away. They picked up speed as they translated up the octaves to the eighth octave.
“Think we're doing the right thing?” Magnus asked the captain carefully as they ate breakfast together the next morning. Now that they were using the bridges he was getting used to moving vast distances in a short time. Toddling along six weeks to get across four measly light years was annoying.
The bridges were making the entire journey surreal. Unnerving to some, but really, it didn't seem real. The numbers, nothing made sense. To travel 15,000 light years and then back? He shook his head mentally.
The captain finished his drink of his juice and then set the glass down carefully. “I'm not sure. To be honest I think they are winging it,” the captain finally replied as he picked over his scrambled eggs. He'd long gotten used to the artificial protein mix. “Hell, we all are,” he said. “One day at a time,” he murmured. The XO nodded.
“Well, since there is no news, or no news is good news on that front, ops is working on a plan to share data between the hyperbridge group and Doctor McReese's people. Doctor McReese wants to run a simulation of each of the planets we terraformed to see how they would end up over time,” he said with a grimace.
“Shouldn't that wait?”
“It does use a lot of processing power,” the XO agreed. “And my own gut feeling is it should wait. But she insisted I run it by you,” he said, waving a hand in deferral to the skipper.
“Duly noted. The bridge has priority,” the skipper said in a mild tone.
“Aye aye, skipper,” the XO said in approval.
“What's next?” the captain asked, setting his fork down as he picked up a biscuit. He buttered it then took a bite.
“Well …”
-*-*-^-*-*-
Just beyond WS 400 they translated down to the lowest octave. There Brock immediately picked up a hyperbridge. “It's faint but there, skipper.”
“Should we stop and refuel?” Anita asked.
“We should,” the skipper mused. “But I think … not. Let's see where this goes,” he said, nodding his head to the image of the hyperbridge. “Take us in helm; let's see where it goes.”
The WS 400 Bridge was projected to go past the LS 335 and LS 330 stars and most likely end up in the Pup OB1 cluster of super stars if it didn't fall short. Getting into the bridge was easier. Now that they had experience Nike and the crew were adapting.
-*-*-^-*-*-
The more experience they picked up with the bridges the more they learned about the rules that seemed to govern them. For instance, after studying the stellar cartography along the bridge they'd gone out on Wally had come to the conclusion that the other massive stars played some supporting role in the bridge. If one drew a line from Sirius to Altair and then beyond to their end point in B-92c a lot of massive stars lined up along the path. That couldn't be coincidence. That point was argued by the physics group and the science community for some time until Wally presented the WS 400 bridge was proving that hypothesis, though they still had a long way to go to find out where it ended.
Clusters of large stars turned out to be potential junctions or major poles of hyperbridges. Wally theorizes that the cumulative mass in the small area contributed to creating a bridge pole.
They had also found that they couldn't translate to a higher band on the bridge. The bridge took over. Again they were fuzzy on the mechanics of how it worked. They did put the speed well above the still theoretical foxtrot band of hyperspace. But the bridge speed wasn't a constant. They also found that the longer the bridge the more acceleration, therefore the faster they went. Shorter bridges were slower. That dovetailed with their exiting issues. Exiting at B-92C had been hazardous and damaging to the ship. Fortunately, it hadn't crippled her beyond the ability of the engineering crew's ability to repair. Wally theorized that going through the hyper wall and hitting normal hyperspace after accelerating for so long was why it was so brutal. Exiting at WS404 had been mild in comparison.
They were still arguing if stars had multiple bridges or could support a network. Only further experience would answer that question.
After months of travel, the ship had to drop out at HD 59813 to make repairs and refuel. The captain was taking Wally's theory that shorter jumps lent to easier translations so considered the stop a necessary evil to bleed off speed.
When the ship did translate out of the turbulent wall then down into real space, they found a nice B class star with a very sparse dust cloud and Oort cloud. That was a problem; one they hadn't anticipated.
They had to scramble to find enough water ice in the system to refuel. It took some doing and weeks of coasting by the ship and her automated tugs to scoop up the fuel that they needed.
Chief Roak's people weren't idle. They spent a lot of time tearing into the ship's systems the best they could. Cosmos did a tear down of reactor 1 when he found hairline cracks in a support. A weld to repair the cracks was out of the question. They also had some impedance issues as well as contamination from the heavy deuterium fuel mix they had been running. Bernard worked with Cosmos to figure out a buttress repair to the cracked support strut while robots did their best to clean the neutron saturated plasma bottle.
To the COB and Chief engineer's surprise a lot of people who were EVA qualified and even many who weren't volunteered to work out on the hull. It was dangerous tedious work, hardly a pleasure walk. They'd had to come down on a few people for playing tourist instead of paying attention to their jobs.
One month to the day after dropping out of hyper they translated back into hyper. As the ship stabilized in the lowest band, Brock reported a problem; they had not one but two bridges to choose from.
“So, a junction does exist!” Wally said, grinning as he typed the news in an email to Taz and the others.
“Yes, but the question is, which one?” the captain asked.
“Um, oh,” the navigator said.
“Well, you happen to be the navigator, so navigate,” the ops tech urged.
“Hush,” Wally murmured as he typed. “Brock, I need a rundown of the second bridge. Can you get enough of a heading from it from where we are?” he said, not looking up from his work.
“I'm working on it,” the sensor officer replied. “We're too far out to see it well though.”
“Captain, recommend we move in closer. To within 1 AU if possible.”
“We may pick up some turbulence if we get that close,” the fin on helm duty warned.
“See if we can get the data Mister Thompson and Pappas need before then,” the captain said mildly.
It took a full shift, but when they were finished they had enough way points along the new bridge to plot a tentative course. It was projected to lead off to the Pup ob1 cluster, while their previous bridge went further inward. “Captain, I recommend we stay the course we previously had,” the tired navigator reported.
“By all means, stay on the golden brick road leading to home, Mister Pappas,” the captain ordered. “But let's hold off on translating until you and the rest of the crew are fresh enough to handle it,” he ordered. “It can wait until morning,” he said getting to his feet.
“Aye aye, sir,” Brock replied with a sigh of relief.
-*-*-^-*-*-
Three weeks into the journey Wally announced they'd passed the O class star HD 57236 that was at the halfway mark to home. “Seven and a half thousand light years. This may be the long route home, but its working! We're doing it!” he said elated.
“We're not home free yet,” the XO reminded him.
“No sir. But it's just …” Wally shook his fists in front of his chest in excitement.
“Good. Keep us on the right heading then,” the XO ordered.
“Aye aye, sir.”
-*-*-^-*-*-
Icarus passed HD 6038 and kept going. When they reached the region of the O class star HD 52533, some of the crew thought they'd drop out, but the skipper insisted they go on. “After all folks, we've come this far. And remember, we managed to run the gauntlet the entire way going out to Rho. I think we can handle a bit further,” the captain assured them.
Just on the 1500 parsec mark they exited hyper into a cluster of super stars. The pole was HD4099, an O class star, one of several O and B class stars in the area. They immediately refueled and then took some downtime to run repairs.
Unfortunately while doing a hull survey, Bernard's suit malfunctioned. His computer failed, cutting off his communications and life support. He was halfway around the ship from the lock, too far to get to it easily.
Before his partner could get to him to buddy, his O2 it had run out, and he had panicked. He had clawed at the hull and accidentally kicked himself off the hull and into space. Carefully reeling him in like a fish had taken time, too much time for him. By the time they'd gotten to him, he'd passed out from lack of air.
Magnus had been alerted as had Doctor McDaniel and her medical team. They met the EVA team in the lock. The tech who brought Bernard in hastily got out of the way, jumping over the doctor as she dropped in to the fallen tech's side. “Is he going to be okay?”
“His vital signs have flat-lined,” Nike reported from the overhead. The tech looked stricken. The XO's jaw worked. He watched the medics work frantically at the suit.
“Sir …” Bob said, practically begging.
“It's out of my hands, son,” the XO said roughly. “All we can do is get out of their way and pray,” he said. He turned at a sound and noted the approach of the captain and COB. One look from him was all it took to tell them the news wasn't good. The COB's stride slowed but then she picked up as she settled herself once more.
“How bad?”
“He flatlined. That's all w
e know, skipper,” the XO reported. He stepped aside as the doctor passed him.
“Out of the way! Make a damn hole!” the CMO snarled, pulling the gurney. A robot was strapped to the man's chest, trying to restart his heart. The captain saw the screen; all the lines were flat. He caught a brief look at the man's face; his eyes were still, face slack. He closed his eyes in pain.
-*-*-^-*-*-
The next day they held a memorial service for Bernard. The man hadn't wanted his body to be recycled, so they gave him a space burial. The captain spoke a brief speech of comfort; Bernard had no religion on his record. When he was finished the shrouded body was gently ejected in the direction of the giant sun. In a few decades, it would eventually be consumed by its fiery mass. Isley stood by a virtual port and watched it go. She cried soft tears, but when duty called she dashed them and went back to work.
Later that evening, ship's time, they jumped back into hyperspace.
-*-*-^-*-*-
It was inevitable that the ship would start to break down over time. It had been planned for before they had left Sol and various measures had been taken to offset the problem. Their generous stores for one, as well as their limited machine shops and manufacturing equipment. There were only so many times a component could be rebuilt, however, before it became useless junk. Chief COB had a counseling session with the senior officers before she turned her people loose on the terraforming equipment. It wasn't needed so they sacrificed it in order to get the ship closer to home.
Tearing apart the terraforming equipment alleviated some of the stress on the crew but not all of it. Only the equipment they could reach inside could be accessed; the components strapped to their exterior in pods would have to wait until their next stop to be recycled.
The freed-up space was a godsend to some of the crew. Some of the space was still kept; after all the vats used to grow plants were just as good at growing hydroponics for the crew to eat or the plastic machinery to use. Two of the compartments were used for storage. A third was taken over by Doctor McReese and her team as an improvised lab. That kept them busy and out of the COB's hair so she signed off on it.
