Darrell Bain

by The Y Factor (lit)

  "Now I'd like to introduce you to my officers."

  One by one they stepped forward and he gave their names, rank and duties. I'll skip them for now except for three.

  My surgeon, Dr. Honeywell, was presented as the ship's Chief Medical Officer. That made me feel good. Anybody that could patch up what Ish had made of my insides while working right alongside Crispies in their natural form was exactly what we might need in a head physician. Hopefully not, I thought, but I also knew Murphy tended to go along on any space flight. Better to have Honeywell and not need him than vice versa.

  Madeline Graham was introduced as our chief astrogator, so I guessed that title was official now. She was wearing the silver leaves of a naval commander or an army lt. colonel. Wow! I hadn't realized how high Maddie was in the military hierarchy. Then I remembered she'd just been promoted for this trip. Whatever, I made a mental note to use her military title unless we were alone.

  I hadn't slept well the previous night and it had been a long flight. The meal had also made me sleepy. Probably Captain Becker realized this held true for many of the crew because he cut his orientation speech mercifully short with a final statement.

  "Now I'm going to turn the meeting over to Commander Edward Prescott, our executive officer. He and Commander Graham are going to be describing the ship, its function and design and how we intend to operate while on the voyage. Good Day."

  "Attention!"

  All the military and most of the civilians stood as the captain departed. I suspected the ones who didn't get out of their chairs were in line for a very pointed lecture on ship's etiquette before the day was done.

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  CHAPTER TWENTY

  Once Captain Becker was gone, Maddie and Commander Prescott took over. It was mostly Maddie who did the talking, while Prescott stood silently beside her. The chest full of ribbons said all about him that needed saying just then, assuming you could read them.

  Maddie got right to it. “I believe the first thing I should make clear is that our ship is organized along naval rather than army lines. For you in the military, that's probably already clear just from the ranks of the principal officers such as myself. Even so, I do want to mention one very important aspect of this subject. Captain Becker is always, repeat, always referred to as Captain Becker, never Colonel Becker. This may not seem important to civilians but it is. While we are in space, Captain Becker is our ultimate authority. What he says goes. He may ask for debate on occasion, but once he's made a decision, that's it. You do things the way he orders them done. Same for when he gives an order. You obey it. Period. No matter whether you disagree with the order or not, you obey it right then. The only persons he has to answer to are his superiors on Earth, if and when we return."

  She held up her hand to discourage the few people who were practically bursting with questions, then went on. “And speaking of return, first we have to leave.” That got a few chuckles. “Departure, or perhaps I should say launch, will be at 0800 tomorrow morning. That's eight o'clock in civilian time. And while we're on that subject, so long as we're aboard ship, we go by military time. A day is equal to 24 hours, so for example, three o'clock in the afternoon will now be 15 hundred hours and so on."

  I looked around as she spoke and saw heads nodding but was willing to bet some of them weren't getting it. And that wasn't the worst of it. She had problems explaining why some of the landing force officers had ranks that were equivalent to the ship's officers but different, even though they were both listed as Space Force. She finally got smart and told us to think of the Security detachment as marines and the majority of the rest of the crew as navy. That did it, except for the confusion of having an army colonel as captain. I suppose that was because the army was the first to take control of any Crispies and was instrumental in getting the Space Force going. They were subsequently rewarded by having command of this ship. However, it was run along navy lines simply because of the navy's vast experience in operating ships on extended duty such as this was going to be. I found out there's a definite art to controlling that many people in an enclosed space over a period of time. It's not a job that I'd ever want.

  Someone asked a question, and while Maddie was answering it, I whispered one of my own to Juan. “Why are you here? I don't see any of the other troops from the camp."

  "I was a late addition, remember? I was told to report here, just in case I needed some of the briefing."

  "Do you?"

  "Sure. When you're going someplace you haven't been before, you can't know enough."

  He had a point. We knew where we were headed, but hadn't a clue what we'd find there. Hopefully, we wouldn't find a satellite placed in orbit around a planet belonging to the star of our first stop. No satellite meant the Zeng Wu hadn't reached it and would be along directly. All we'd have to do then was wait until she showed up. If she did.

  "Will we be in zero gravity on the ship?” someone asked.

  "In the ship,” Maddie corrected. “No, other than for short periods while obtaining navigation data. The unreality drive also encapsulates and carries with it a pseudogravitational force corresponding to that set into the impeller and drive before launch."

  Damn, I thought. I'd heard that sex in free fall could be quite stimulating if you managed to avoid space sickness during the activity. Unfortunately, rumor had it there was about a 50-50 chance of tossing your cookies. Still, I was willing to chance it. Given the right partner, of course, and assuming he and I were in proximity when the time came.

  A bell rang, marking the end of the brief. I glanced at my watch and saw that it was seven o'clock. Nineteen hundred hours, rather. Almost immediately on its heels, Captain Becker made an announcement over the ship's com.

  "Attention. As of 1900 hours today, the ship has gone on internal power for a final check and will be closed to further interaction with the outside world. Launch time remains at 0800 hours tomorrow morning."

  It was repeated, then Maddie had a final word. “Tours of the ship will begin at 2000 hours from the central dining room for those who wish it. Please be aware that you are responsible for knowing the general layout of the ship and where your battle station and lifeboat stations are located, so I suggest you take one of the tours. They'll be done in small groups in order to avoid cluttering any one station with too many bodies."

  Juan walked me back to my stateroom, then headed off to somewhere else. I took the time to go over the diagrams of the ship once again, then decided I'd better take the tour.

  It was both interesting and informative. Impellers and drives were located at both ends of where the “tin cans” narrowed and were attached together. Smaller, emergency impellers were secured in each of the four larger sections. The unique design of the ship had it split into four sections and each was stocked with food and other goods as well as some personnel. That meant that any of the four sections could be jettisoned in an emergency, and make its way home, although it would take significantly longer. Or the captain might decide to detach a section and have it put down on a habitable planet while leaving the rest of the ship in orbit. I doubted that would happen, because it would take a lot of effort to separate a section and reattach it, but it was doable. Someone had put a lot of thought into both the ship and the possible dangers we were headed towards.

  Besides an area for quarters on each deck, I traced the ship diagram in three dimensions through electronics labs, biology labs complete with live animals and the accompanying smells, a spare communications mode, the chief engineer's domain and section engineering spaces, arms rooms, computer rooms, physics and chemistry labs, and a few other scientific specialties they could squeeze in, which wasn't that many. The tour didn't take us through all of them, but I have to mention one.

  "...and this is the office and working area of Mai Li Trung, Chief Science Officer,” the Petty Officer leading the tour said. “All civilian science departments report to her. She will..."

  Huh? Chief Science O
fficer? That was news to me. Nothing like letting a person know in advance, I thought.

  The rest of the group moved on but I decided to stop and see what in the hell was going on. I didn't want to be an administrator; I wanted to do my own research. Not to mention that I was going to be busy mentoring Gordon. However, the nameplate on the door didn't leave much room for argument. It listed my name and right beneath, CHIEF SCIENTIST.

  I turned the latch and slid the door aside. An idle thought made me wonder whether naval terms like hatch for the square entrance I stepped through would take over, or if it would simply be called a doorway. There was a desk just inside and sitting at the desk, turned half away from me, was a female Chief Petty Officer. When she heard the sound of the door sliding on its tracks she swiveled in her chair. She took one look at me then stood up.

  "Good evening, ma'am. I'm CPO Dianne Meadows, your administrative assistant."

  Obviously, she'd seen a picture of me.

  "Nice to meet you, Chief. When did all this occur?"

  "Ma'am?"

  "Me being appointed Chief Science Officer. I wasn't aware of it until a few minutes ago."

  "Really?” She seemed amazed. “I've been busy setting up files and getting your working quarters organized for the last two weeks."

  "Hmm.” Someone playing a joke on me, obviously. Gene? No, so far as I knew, he wasn't slated for the trip. I put it out of my mind for the time being.

  "Would you like to see?” Chief Meadows asked. The smiling, expectant expression on her otherwise rather plain face made her look almost pretty and told me plainly that she wanted to show off what she'd done.

  "Sure. Lead the way."

  The floor space was minimal as would be expected on a starship. A small office was separated from the genetics lab by a partition. The lab held the usual replicators and splicers along with light, electron and tunneling microscopes, centrifuges and a number of other instruments necessary to the research, and closed cabinets and coolers that held supplies. It wasn't impressive to look at, but I dealt with small bits of biological material that didn't require a lot of space. Chief Meadows pointed out the three computers in the office.

  "This one is for your personal use. Mine is netted with it and we'll share, but if there's anything you need to keep confidential there's a separate hard drive you can access and password protect. The one over there is tied in with all the others in this part of the ship, section A, as well as with the main ship's computer. There's the monitor and keyboard for it, and the whole ship can access it.” She pointed.

  "Sounds like a good compartmented setup,” I said.

  "Yes ma'am, but only if necessary. Otherwise, the whole ship is tied together. Oh, and as one of the crew chiefs, you have automatic access to Command Control, up to and including the Flight Deck, although you'll have to go through a procedure for that area. But it's assumed that, if something comes up, you may need immediate access to the Officer On Deck."

  "Wow. Hot shit. Thanks, Chief. Good job. Um, I believe I should probably try to catch up with the tour now.” I nodded to her and left.

  It was too late. I couldn't find them and didn't want to ask. I returned to my stateroom and accessed the FAQs.

  I'd been on a cruise ship once. The Galactic wasn't arranged like a sea-going vessel but there were many similarities. I was amazed at how much cubic space could be put to use. The designers of the ship had done a fine job, as well as I could tell, especially considering how fast they'd worked.

  The most interesting part of it to me was the main control room. I brought up some holographic images and found it was at the front part, behind the mashed noses of the cylinders and in turn protected by two steel-reinforced hatches which opened out into an area with a number of small portholes. The room had a half-dozen comfortable-looking chairs with computerized workstations at each. One in particular was intriguing, a weapons station. I hadn't known Galactic was armed with anything other than light infantry weapons. I asked the computer about it and got a recording and text description.

  It looked as if we could fight a battle in space from the weapons console, but it was a little misleading. Part of it was simply communications to and from the ship to a landing party, for instance. However, we did have the capacity for launching several missiles from space and there were two cannons that fired explosive shells as well as a laser cannon powered by the core of the unreality drive. The big weapons wouldn't work while under thrust but were mean mofus otherwise. Our offensive power was limited, though, compared to what we might find out there. Hopefully, we wouldn't run into armed or hostile ships in space on our journey. And the security troops were pretty well fixed with their own weaponry. A single soldier today can put out almost as much firepower individually as a tank used to.

  So much for that, although I had no doubt eventually we'd see starships armed to the teeth on exploratory missions like ours. I had heard that a whole array of exotic weaponry was in the R&D stage, being adapted from Crispy technology.

  On a sudden impulse I called and invited Juan to watch the launch the next morning with me via the ship's monitor in my room.

  "Golly, Cherry, I'd really like to but I'm on duty right then. We've already started standing watches. Not that us warrior types will be doing anything notable at the time but this is kind of a thrown together unit. We're going to be doing a lot of virtual training while en route. Can I take a rain check?"

  "Sure. Talk to you later."

  So much for that. I spent the next couple of hours before bedtime going over some of Jeri's notes one more time. Once underway, Gordon's conversion to human would begin. I couldn't help but wonder what Juan would think of me working so closely with another man, supposing he and I got something going. That was my last thought before I dozed off with the reader still in my lap.

  * * * *

  Passengers, or rather everyone but the crew actually involved in running the ship were advised—translate: ordered—to remain in their staterooms, cabins or bunks during launch. I hadn't met my neighbors yet, so I sat in my easy chair with a cup of coffee and waited out the countdown. At the moment right before launch, the screen showed an expanse of desert. Prior to that all I'd been able to see were the metal walls of the construction building; but as launch hour neared, a faint rumbling shook the ship and the walls began sliding past—or appeared to. It was actually the ship being moved outside. The launch had been precisely timed so that no observation or spy satellites from other countries could zero in on us when it occurred.

  I suppose I was still expecting some kind of giant rumble of rockets along with an increasing force of gravity pressing on me as we lifted, and this was despite seeing the ship and knowing it wasn't propelled by rockets. A lifetime of conditioning, watching giant rockets blasting off, is hard to shake. Instead, a sudden feeling of vertigo and nausea swept over me. I had to lean forward and lay my head on my forearms in order to keep from falling out of my chair. There was a queer sense of wanting to crawl out of my skin that went on and on as if I were in a state of withdrawal from an addicting drug. Just when I thought I could stand it no longer, it passed, leaving me weak and light-headed. The first step was somewhat akin to diving head first into a vortex but once that was over it was hard to tell I was even in a spaceship.

  As soon as I was able to look at my monitor again, the desert vista was gone. It was replaced by the sight of a rapidly receding Earth and the appearance of utterly black space filled with the bright unwinking pinprick of stars. Talk about fast, we were really zooming away from Earth, and at that, we were barely getting started. Once past the last of the atmosphere and the final remnants of the Van Allen belt, there was a jerking sensation I felt throughout my body. Then that nauseating, inside-out sensation washed over me with a renewed vigor that made my head swim. That was the unreality impellers shifting into high gear. The stars blurred into a roiling whiteness that was unpleasant to watch. I had to turn away from it, but a moment later it was replaced by an image of Captain B
ecker, speaking in the command voice that seemed to come naturally to him.

  "Good morning. I'm happy to announce that all ship's systems are functioning normally. We are now leaving our solar system and are on our way to a star system formerly designated by a number. It has been named in honor of one of our fallen comrades, Captain Alex Swavely, who died to save one of our Cresperian friends from a very unpleasant captivity. The star and the habitable planet we believe is orbiting it will now be referred to as the Swavely system and the planet as Swavely.

  "Swavely is the last star system on the Zeng Wu itinerary before it was to begin a search for the Cresperian solar system. As most of you know, we are hoping to arrive there before they do, so that we may exchange some crucial data concerning Cresperian psychology. Whether we beat them there or they have been there and departed will determine our actions from that point on.

  "You are now free to leave your quarters, duty permitting, and wander about. The control rooms, engine rooms, arsenals and several other areas are off limits to unauthorized personnel. If you aren't certain whether you are authorized, you probably aren't. Please note that this information is part of your initial briefing and is filed in all networked computers for your perusal. Thank you."

  His image disappeared.

  We were in space, en route to the stars. The stars!

  I hugged myself gleefully and grinned wildly, all alone in my stateroom, still hardly able to believe it.

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