The Apprentice Starship Engineer: Book One The Link

by Hanks, Daniel

  “Hmm, well, it’s a good thing I found disposable coveralls in the airlock change room,” I said.

  Jack smiled. “Yeah, I try to keep stuff at the airlocks just in case. Let’s get started. We have a lot to do this afternoon.” He walked over to his favorite display. After tapping the screen, a drawing of the bender ring was displayed. He circled part of it, and the screen zoomed in, showing only the section he’d marked. “This is the area we’ll be working on tomorrow. Navigation has determined that these thirteen emitters are in need of alignment.”

  Jack stood back, looking at the display, then circled one of the emitters. It filled the screen. He took a deep breath, then continued nonstop, taking me step-by-step through the procedure. He went over it several times, each time he made me point out the hazards.

  “Don’t get in front of the emitter unless you want to die young. Understand? Stay behind this point,” he said, pointing at the display. “Don’t cross it, and while we’re adjusting it, stay tethered to the support.”

  Bob entered the shop and then set tools onto his bench. He kept glancing over, giving Jack worried looks. “Jack, I have a bad feeling. We should just turn around and get the ring repaired in a space dock,” he said. He turned his back on us and put his tools away.

  “You said that before. Why do you have a bad feeling? What exactly is bothering you?” Jack asked.

  Bob slammed a wrench down and turned. “This whole damn mission! That’s what’s bothering me! Jack, it’s wrong. We shouldn’t be doing this, going out beyond the arm.” He glared wildly at Jack. He looked scared to me.

  Jack shook his head. “It’s not up to me, Bob. You signed up for this trip, knowing full well where we were going. Tomorrow we’re going to realign the ring emitters.”

  Bob continued to glare at him. “Jack, when I was out there alone, I saw the sign in the warp. Something is going to happen.” He turned away.

  “Horse shit. You don’t believe that shit, do you, Bob?” Jack asked.

  “I saw it. The double spiral cross as plain as your face. Something is going to happen.”

  Jack let out a nervous laugh. “Yeah, something is going to happen if you’re not ready to go tomorrow. That’s for sure.”

  “Ah, Jack, what the hell is a spiral cross?” I asked.

  “Superstitious bull people believe. If someone sees a spiral cross, it means the voyage is jinxed and will meet with disaster. Idiots believe that since we’re punching through the time barrier. They can predict the future.” Jack shook his head. “Don’t worry, kid, just a bunch of shit. Take the rest of your shift off. Be here at six hundred tomorrow.” He went to his office and opened the cabinet where he kept his bottle. He looked up at me. “Get out of here. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  Without taking the time to clean up, I grabbed my coffee cups and left maintenance. I stopped by the dining hall to return the dishes. As I headed to my dorm, I heard people talking about the double spiral cross.

  “I knew it. I shouldn’t have come on this trip,” one person said.

  As I walked, Margret reminded me of my appointment with Kathy. I don’t believe in luck, signs or jinxes. A few of the players on my high school baseball team did. They had all sorts of stuff they blamed their performance on—string, rubber bands, cards. As I walked toward Kathy’s cabin, I thought with everyone thinking the mission was jinxed, would they subconsciously set themselves up for failure?

  Kathy’s door opened for me. A voice said she’d be there shortly and I should make myself comfortable. After taking a seat on the couch, I pulled out Margret and asked her about a spiral cross. She pulled up several examples of spiral cross pictures. It was a good thing someone had drawn the spirals or I’d have missed them. I had her search the ship’s sensors and for a spiral cross pattern and she came up with an error, not enough information for the search.

  More searches found the history of the spiral crosses. It came from three ships that had disappeared. While reviewing their sensor logs, a man named Phil Sherman saw spiral crosses in each case and so began the legend.

  I said out loud, “People can be so stupid.”

  “You have no idea,” Kathy said as she closed the door behind her. “So I hear you’re going to align ring emitters tomorrow.”

  “Yeah, we practiced and trained all day,” I said.

  Kathy sighed. “When the union set up the training program, we had two parts. One was the knowledge or book learning. The second was hands-on with someone at your side, showing how to do the work. Management insisted trainees be given the chance to advance themselves faster than the time allotted by the union. So we compromised, and here we are. You pushed faster than anyone ever dreamed possible. You’re being given the pay and responsibilities of a third-year apprentice in your first year. I talked to everyone. You have to go out tomorrow and help adjust the ring emitters. This has never happened before, a first-year trainee being asked to work outside in space.” She studied me for a moment. I felt uncomfortable. “Be careful. Do what Jack says and no more,” she said. Still staring at me, she looked mean, and her hands shook. “Promise me that you’ll be careful and follow Jack’s instructions.”

  “Kathy, don’t worry. Jack has gone over what we’re going to do step-by-step several times. I promise you, I’ll be careful,” I said.

  She nodded. “Okay, I’ll make us dinner,” she said as she headed toward the kitchen.

  “Ah, Kathy, I can’t stay,” I said as jumped to my feet.

  Her brows furrowed and eyes went cold. “Why? Is it that girl?”

  “No, I want to be ready tomorrow. I don’t want to be working dumb. I want to know about emitters and what we’re doing with them.”

  She smiled. “Ha, figures. Stay, you can study here.”

  I sat in a state of confusion. Had Kathy been jealous of Jenny? Did I just see that? After tapping Margret, I opened up a lecture on the theory of warp travel. I soon found myself fighting to keep up. Repeatedly, I stopped the professor, asking him to explain what he’d said.

  “So as you can see we hold the opening just in front of the ship. The closer we get the faster we can accelerate, but the more unstable time becomes,” he said.

  “What happens if we come in contact with the opening?”

  The professor smiled. “No one is sure. A few propose you might enter another dimension where physical laws are different. Others propose that you’d be destroyed by the warp fields. Several probes were sent through and never returned. We don’t know what would happen to you.”

  A plate of food emerged from the professor’s head. I stopped the program and thanked Kathy for the food. She sat next to me on the couch, watching me as I ate. Between bites I complimented her on the food. As I took the last mouthful she reached over and gave me a kiss on the cheek. I looked back at her in a state of shock. She took my head in her hands and kissed my nose, then took my plate and retreated into the kitchen.

  Shocked, I walked toward the kitchen. She met me at the door. She grabbed my ears and gave me another kiss on the lips. She wrapped her arms around me and put her head on my chest. My heart hammered, and I had a hard time catching my breath.

  Holding me tight, she said, “I’m too old for you! You should go now. I should have never kissed you.” She pushed me away and hung her head. “Go. Please leave.”

  I ran my hand through her hair and down her neck. She quivered at my touch as my thumb brushed her ear.

  She grabbed my arm with both hands. “No, don’t touch me. You must go now.” She pushed me out her door and then closed it behind me.

  Outside, I gasped for air as my head spun. What had just happened? Did that just happen to me? What the hell? I turned and stomped my way to my room. I thought about what Sibyl had said. A lucky girl will scoop you up. Ha, I didn’t want to be scooped up. I don’t need a girl in my life, I thought. I slipped off into a troubled sleep and was still pissed off when I got up, but lost steam as I finished my shower. Hell, I thought, I don’t know how I feel
about Kathy.

  * * * *

  I stopped at the cafeteria and grabbed a few donuts and a thermos of coffee. To hell with Kathy and her rules. I entered the shop and saw Jack and Bob. “You both look like hell. Are we still go on this spacewalk today?” I asked.

  “Screw you.” Bob snarled.

  “Captain wants to have a get together before we start, so play your parts as the highly-motivated maintenance crew of the Armstrong,” Jack said, picking up his notepad.

  We followed Jack, eating our donuts and sipping coffee into a transport. Sandra was there. She smiled at me, then scowled at my donut and stole my coffee.

  “Big pow wow at the captain’s this morning. Are you going?” Sandra asked.

  “Guess so.”

  I took my coffee back and had a sip. Sandra eyed my cup so I passed it back. We rode on in silence. As we stepped out into the royal hall, Jack complained about what a waste it was.

  Stella Sterling stood by a door. She moved forward to meet us. “Shit, Jack, could you’ve at least shaved.”

  “Captain isn’t my kind of girl. I’m not shaving for her.”

  “Okay, everyone, inside. Move it,” Stella said with a sigh.

  We sauntered in, making no movement that might appear as if we were in a hurry. I stopped at the coffee pot and filled my cup before taking a seat next to Sandra. As Doc Weston a powerfully built man who looked like he lived in a gym and TJ arrived along with some security personnel. Ron Thompson and several other ship’s officers entered and found chairs at the table. Ron nodded to me. After a few minutes, Captain Ramon entered the room, taking a position at the end of the table.

  “Thank you for coming. We’ve been experiencing an anomaly with the bender ring, and will be performing adjustments. I’ve been assured it can be done safely and successfully. I’ll let Jack explain it.” She nodded at Jack.

  “Thank you, captain. For the last three weeks, navigation has been noticing we’re using more adjustment to keep on course. We checked into it and found many of our tachyon emitters were at or near their adjustment limit. If we stepped out of warp now, our computers wouldn’t control the emitters and open a warp bubble. The only way to align the emitters is while we’re in warp. We don’t have the equipment to align them any other way. Captain, we can’t leave warp for any reason. We have to align the emitters or this mission will fail.”

  A three dimensional drawing was displayed on the wall. Jack walked over to it, pointing at several emitters that turned red.

  “These are the emitters in question. We—Bob, Drake and I—will go out to each emitter and align them. This will be an extended spacewalk. I expect it to take up to sixteen hours.” He looked at the audience.

  Captain Ramone nodded. “Thank you, Jack.”

  “We’ll station emergency responders at airlock C-two,” Sandra said. “Let your AIs know.”

  “Does anyone else have anything to add?” Captain Ramon asked. “We’ll have a double watch on the bridge, and be standing by for manual control.” She looked around the room. “Everyone stay sharp, keep your cool and don’t knock us out of warp. Good luck. Take your stations.”

  As the meeting broke up, and we started leaving, Sandra grabbed my arm. “Be careful. Don’t get hurt.” She gave me a kiss on the cheek. Puzzled about our relationship, I followed Jack and Bob to maintenance.

  As we entered, Bob said, “You should let me tell her. It’s a warning. The spiral cross shouldn’t be ignored.”

  “What can we do, Bob? Tell me and we’ll do it,” Jack said.

  “Turn around, go back to Mars and have our ring aligned there.”

  Jack laughed. “We can’t do that. We have to fix the ring ourselves and continue.”

  “Are you two going to keep fighting all day?” I asked.

  Jack scowled at me. “Shut up and push that cart of tools to the lock. Get ready. We’ll be along.”

  I started to get changed when Margret chimed. “Hi, I just wanted to apologize for last night and wish you a safe walk,” Kathy said. Her hair was a mess and her eyes were all puffy. It looked as if she hadn’t slept a bit.

  My first thought was to hurt her for what she’d done to me, but it looked as if she’d suffered enough already. “Okay, thanks,” I said. She looked as if I’d slapped her. Maybe she needed more. “Kathy, I’m not at a place where I have the time for a girlfriend. Maybe on our way home I can, but not now.”

  She smiled. “Still friends then?”

  “Of course. I’ll talk later, okay?” She blew me a kiss and closed the communication. What the hell, I thought. Is that woman crazy or what?

  I’d just finished putting on my first layer when Margret chimed again. “Hi, I just wanted to wish you a safe walk,” Sandra said. “I’ll buy you dinner tonight.”

  “I’d like that. Thanks,” I said.

  She smiled. “Good. Be safe.”

  “Of course,” I said. She blew me a kiss and closed the communication.

  Jack and Bob showed up. Both were still in shitty moods and grumpy as hell, but they looked better. As I waited for them at the airlock, I went over my tools—an impact driver, several wrenches and the all-important hammer. I remembered Jack’s rant about suggested tool kits for jobs and how no one ever suggested a hammer. Son, the very first tool man ever made was the hammer. Everything else owes its existence to it. It has, and will always be, the choice of any good mechanic. When other tools fail, a good hammer will solve the problem. See this list? The people who wrote it never fixed anything. Kid, if I can teach you this one thing, I’ll consider myself a good journeyman. Always keep a good hammer at your side.

  Jack, of course, had been hammered during his rant, but we always brought a hammer, even though no one had ever used one.

  “Ah, a good hammer,” Jack said, interrupting my thoughts.

  “Yep.”

  Jack took it and looked it over. “I carry it for intimidation. Machines know I do and don’t give me any shit. Did you ever wonder why they won’t fail when we’re around?” He gave the hammer a gentile swing and smiled, then handed it back to me.

  It occurred to me that Jack wasn’t sane or had a whacked out sense of humor. I put the hammer away in my tool belt and followed him into the airlock. Bob joined us. He looked worried and kept licking his lips and chewing his tongue.

  I monitored my suit displays as the air pumped out of the lock. Everything looked good. These suits were awesome. Someday I’ll buy my father one, I thought.

  Jack stopped us outside the lock. “Get your sightseeing done now,” he said.

  Bob was right. I’d never get enough. I turned, scanning the sky around us.

  “Okay, if you girls are done, let’s get to work,” Jack said. He headed off toward the rim. I stayed close. He stopped next to an emitter. He looked around. “Where the hell is Bob? Come on, Bob! Hurry up!” Bob was still near the airlock and started toward us. Jack swore. “Well, let’s go over the procedure one more time. First, hook up your tether.” I thought I was going to die of boredom as he went over the procedure. For the hundredth time, he said, “A flat is a sixth of a turn, so when I call for a flat, turn the nut one sixth. Remember we’re only adjusting course. The fine is right here.” He pointed to a threaded screw with a servo mounted onto it. It was turned to the end, and that was the problem.

  Jack plugged in the test equipment and started the calibration procedure. By the time Bob arrived we were ready to begin the first adjustment. Bob and I worked two adjustments each, and as Jack called out the station to turn, we hustled back and forth, turning the adjustments one flat at a time. It took an hour and a half before Jack was happy.

  Bob was fuming when we finished. “What the hell, Jack? We need to go faster or this whole job is going to take another eighteen hours.”

  “That’s what it takes. We can’t go any faster or we could overrun the servo and cause a course change or oscillation. We can’t risk it,” Jack said.

  “Oh, bullshit. We could go a half turn
at a time until we get close at least.”

  “The procedures say a flat at a time. I’ve never adjusted a ring emitter before. Have you, Bob? Oh, and by the way, if we overrun the servo, that could cause violent course corrections. We don’t have any inertial dampers out here, do we? We’re doing this by the book, and during the rest of the alignments, hook up your tether, Bob.”

  Each alignment took longer, and Bob whined more and more, never letting up. Jack stopped answering him. At the start of each emitter adjustment, Jack checked my safety line before starting. We’d just started on the eighth emitter.

  “Damn you, Jack, I’m going to turn it one half turn,” Bob said.

  “Don’t,” Jack yelled as the ship lurched, throwing us off the emitter.

  I shot away from the ring, flailing my arms, desperate to find a handhold. With a jolt, the safety line stopped me as the straps bit into my thighs. The ring changed direction, heading right toward me. I threw up my right arm to block my collision and heard it snap as my helmet bashed into a support. I bounced off and spun, wrapping the safety line around my legs in a tangle. As it came tight, I was pulled around and landed on the ring feet first on its return. I grabbed the safety line near its hook with my left hand and hung on tight.

  In a flash, I understood what had happened. When Bob had turned the adjustment a half turn, he’d caused a huge error in the tachyon array. The automatic controls had tried to adjust, but the ship’s reaction controller saw the warp bubble move. It’d tried to correct with the main engines, creating another error, which had caused the huge swings we were now getting. In short, the two systems were fighting each other. Putting the ship in to manual might stop the swings if the pilot was good.

  “Captain, go to manual helm—now,” I yelled.

  “Captain, he’s right. Go to manual helm!” Jack said.

  “Manual helm,” the captain said.

  I hung on tight as the ring swung back and forth. I held my breath as the warp bubble came dangerously close to us. Each swing was less, and after a lifetime, the ship settled, holding a good position in the middle of the bubble. Bob headed toward airlock C-two.