“What does he mean the charts are not showing where we are?” she asked in disbelief. Was he as inept at his job as everyone else in her crew?
The snake man hissed a sigh of agitation at her questioning him.
“The sssstarsssss.” he hissed hotly, gesturing toward the huge view screen. “The ssssstarssss do not match the chartsssss.” he maintained.
Sanic turned to look out at the space scene showing on the display behind him.
“He says the stars don’t match the charts.” he informed the Captain.
Fairbanks tisked her impatience. “That is ridiculous.” she persisted. “There were only a few seconds from the time the ship finally moved to evade the attack until we stopped here. We could not have traveled that far.” she calculated.
“We must still be in the Andromeda Galaxy at least.” she insisted crossly, tiring of everyone else’s incompetence.
“Sssss…sssss..sssss..sssss” Cecil snickered at the Captain’s childish stubbornness. “You can check the chartssss yoursssself, human.” he hissed condescendingly. “But they sssstill will not match.”
“He still believes the ship is out of range for the charts to match.” Sanic interpreted for the Captain.
Fairbanks shook her head in disbelief that they could not be on any star charts, and at her terrible fate of being stuck on this exasperating ship.
Valesque who had been watching the situation quietly decided it was about time for her to speak up. She didn’t want to come right out and say anything about the Space Tripper, that would only criminalize her, but she did have an idea on how to solve the skepticism about their current position.
Have to start getting them used to it from some point, and it would be better if they can come to the conclusion themselves , she thought before coming forward to present her suggestion.
“Umm….I think that Cecil is probably right.” she began, trying to keep from sounding too knowledgeable about their situation. “But we can all go up to the Star Deck and have a look from there to be sure.” she urged, “You can get a panoramic view from up there so it might be helpful.” she explained temptingly for both sides.
The two opposing parties looked at each other with annoyance showing plainly in their countenance. The Captain finally conceding, “Fine, at least if we can get a better view outside we can figure out where we are.” she stated, still resolute on her stand that they were not outside of known space.
Valesque grimaced a bit, imagining how uncomfortable her near future was about to become, as she led the whole control and flight crew to the Hydro-lifts and up to the ship’s topmost deck.
The Star Deck was by far the most beautiful area on the ship, exceeding even the Recreation Deck in ambiance and décor.
This floor was actually two open decks in one, making it a very tall and airy space.
The only solid interior walls were on an island in the middle of the deck that housed the three Hydro-lift bay areas, which accessed the rest of the ship.
This island of elevators and wall effectively cut the deck in half, but only went up as far as the first floor ceiling would have, leaving a deck high open area above the wall and connecting both sides of the large room. The wall also did not reach all the way to the ends of the room leaving space on either edge for tables and walkways.
The Star Deck was the ship’s only public eating area; the food duplicators for the entire room were located along the back of the Hydro-lift wall, the long stretch of flat space allowing ample room for enough duplicating machines to feed an entire ship of people with little or no waiting in lines.
The rest of the room was just open space occupied by tables set out in intimate groupings with plenty of empty floor space in between for walking.
The most captivating feature was that the entire deck was bordered by a transparent outer hull, like a ring of huge picture windows all around the deck.
The lighting in the room was kept dim with only natural bioluminescent lamps on the tables and slightly stronger lights pointing down at the duplicators.
The low lighting not only made the room feel more elegant but it also allowed the stars and planets outside to take center stage, as there were no bright interior lights that would interfere with the view.
Not many of the crowd had made it up to this deck before it seemed, because as soon as the lift doors had hissed open they would just stand there in the doorway gaping as they gasped in wonder at the sights before them.
The darkness of space with the incandescent stars that surrounded the ship made a dramatic background through the clear deck high viewing panels.
Everyone except Cecil and Captain Fairbanks seemed in awe of the view around them. The Captain just stood surveying the scene with crisp, stern glances noting how unnecessary the entire deck was. While Cecil made a scornful face and commented cynically in his snake like hiss, “Ssssssshowy and repulsssssively overdone desssign.”
Valesque however did not pay either of them any mind as she reached down for her Vid-screen from her hip pouch. She had gone back to the Med-room after picking up Lola to retrieve her tools and reseal the panel over the Space Tripper in the doctor’s break-room. The last thing she needed was someone who was there for treatments from the jump coming across that mess and either fooling with it or alerting the Captain before she had a chance to explain.
The Engineer brought up a control program on her Vid-screen and did an override on the emergency power shut down in order to open the Star Deck’s ceiling blinds.
She tapped the release button on the screen and looked up expectantly as a low hiss and motor movement was heard far above them.
The rest of the group slowly switched their focus from the room to the roof above as the droning motors gradually revealed a slit in the formerly dark, flat ceiling panels.
Even the crew members who had been to this deck before began to murmur in wonder as the roof above them began to open up, revealing an entire slightly domed ceiling of the same transparent material as the walls.
They all now found themselves standing in a huge clear dome with stars and galaxies twinkling all around them.
Gasps of awe went up from the group she had brought with her as well as from the few people who had been enjoying a meal from the duplicators before they arrived.
It looked as if the entire deck was sitting out in open space.
Even the most critical among them looked to be enthralled with the new view, Valesque noted with a sideways glance at them all.
The usually cool Pilot looked up with a slightly dropped jaw, from his spot where he was leaning casually between the Hydro-lifts to the back of the group.
Sanic was looking at it with unrestrained enthusiasm, a wide eager smile across his face.
The Captain let her tightly crossed arms slack a bit as the blinds folded away.
While the usually acidic Serpantial lost himself in the moment and slithered forward from the group as he stared wide-eyed at the view around him. Opening his stubby arms and looking up with a childish glee that only a fellow astronomer or lover of stars could know.
“Well, there you go.” Valesque interrupted the stunned silence with a sweeping gesture across the panoramic view. “Do you think you know where we are now?” she asked no one in particular.
Whispering and murmurs went up from the group as they all tried to locate familiar stars or constellations.
“I think that is Orespher with its twelve moons over there.” one said. “Except that other planet doesn’t belong there.” they finished.
“That group over there looks like Auron’s Hammer.” someone suggested.
“Doesn’t the Hammer have twenty stars in its head and a line of 10 for its handle?” another asked. “That one only has fifteen and the handle is too short.”
They went on trying to make out what galaxy or solar system they could possibly be in but nothing fit.
Finally the snake man who had come out of his star daze came up with an idea. “Is it posssssib
le to have the computer project the chartssss onto the ssseiling to find any matchessss?” he hissed, still fully believing they would not find one, but it was the easiest way to show those who were too simple to realize it themselves.
Sanic translated his suggestion to the Captain, who then looked to the Engineer for an answer.
Valesque called up her Vid-screen programs again and did an access link between the star charts and the Star Deck’s dome, instructing the computer to find a match to the scene outside.
Red laser lights flashed up on the walls and ceiling, indicating where stars should be on a certain chart, the pattern then switched to some green spots where stars and planets matched and remaining red dots where there were errors.
A number then showed up on the controlling Vid-screen in Valesque’s hand “298,056 mismatches.” she announced.
Another pattern flashed on the dome, changing to different red and green spots.
“573,967 mismatched.” Valesque repeated the number aloud.
“There are thousssandsss of ssssstar chartsssss.” Cecil informed them, thinking how tiring this would be if they went through all of them this slowly.
“He says this will take forever to go through all the charts this way.” Sanic translated to the Captain.
“I agree.” she immediately responded, “Can we get the computer to go through the calculations faster?” she asked the Virrilian who was tapping up the next chart.
“If you like.” she shrugged. “What margin of error are you comfortable with?”
“Margin of error?” the Captain blinked, she was not in favor of any error.
“In the match. How much error will you allow before you call it a match?” Valesque explained calmly, knowing full well nothing more than a 2% match would ever be likely to come up.
“I would like a 100% match, Ensign.” she snapped, annoyed at the suggestion that she had been wrong and the charts would not match correctly. “We will settle for a 95% match however.” she said covering her bases.
“95 it is.” the Virrilian acknowledged as she put the number into the search parameters, then stood back and watched as star charts flashed on the dome around them.
“We might as well relax, this could take a while.” Tim commented as he watched a few charts flash on and off before making his way over to where Valesque stood staring at her Vid-screen.
“Are you really expecting a match to come up soon?” he asked over her shoulder as he joined her in watching the numbers flash by on her handheld computer.
“Not particularly.” she answered a bit hesitantly, wondering if he had caught on, as she turned her head to look at him behind her.
“Good.” he smiled, his eyes twinkling with mischief. “Then how about we go over to one of those intimate tables and enjoy the romantic view?” he winked.
Valesque groaned slightly as she flipped her Vid-screen off and put it back in her pouch. “Okay, why not,” she sighed tiredly.
Tim grinned happily as he began to lead her off away from the crowd. But she turned to look behind them and call out, “Come on Lola, Sanic, we are going to go sit down over there for a while.” she invited.
The Pilot let out a breath of disappointment; he had been so close to getting her alone.
There was an awkward silence as they all sat down together, mainly because Tim was still not comfortable with Lola around. He had flirted with her so unabashedly before he knew what she was, and now it was a bit off-putting when she tried to continue that relationship.
Lola had sat down between Tim and Sanic, across the table from Valesque and began smiling coyly at the cool, good-looking Pilot.
Tim just looked around the table calmly as he calculated what his next move could be to lessen the numbers.
“I don’t know about any of you but I am getting really thirsty.” he began his strategy. “But I am too tired to bother getting anything, even though the duplicators are right over there.” he emphasized as he rested his arm on the table and leaned his head wearily against his hand, looking briefly at Lola in the seat beside him.
“I can get you something!” Lola exclaimed brightly, only too happy to do something for the cute Lieutenant.
“No, I wouldn’t want to bother you.” he sighed dejectedly. “You are probably tired too.”
“Oh, no, I am not a bit tired!” she assured him. “I can go get you something right now and be back in a jiffy.” she insisted.
“If you are sure it isn’t any trouble.” the Pilot replied with a patented smile.
“Nope, no trouble at all.” she bubbled. “What would you like?”
“I’ll let you pick.” he replied. “I am sure you will choose something I will really like.” he coaxed with another smile.
Lola grinned and bounced up from her seat, cheerily going across the room to the food duplicators.
Tim had calculated his reply perfectly because he knew it would take longer for her to pick something she thought he might like than for her to just order something he asked for specifically.
Tim then turned worrisomely to Valesque. “Are you sure you don’t want anything, Beautiful?” he queried. “It has been a while since your dinner break and you had been a bad girl and not finished everything on your plate. With your high metabolism I am sure you must be getting hungry again by now.” he commented.
Valesque wanted to contradict him, but the truth was as he mentioned it she did begin to feel hungry and regretted not finishing her meal earlier.
Sanic saw that the Lieutenant was probably right and got an idea. “I can go get you something.” he suggested eagerly.
Valesque looked to the easily maneuvered young Operations Commander uncertainly.
It was almost as if the Yorkie had it all scripted out with Lola and Sanic completely under his control.
“It’s not a problem; I have something I am sure you will like.” he insisted, then got up from the table and started on his mission before she could reply.
Valesque gave the Pilot an icy look, “You are pretty clever at this, Yorkie.” she remarked.
Tim gave her a pleased smile and a wink, looking like he was about to say something but she cut him off.
“You still don’t care for Lola, yet you can easily use her when it is to your benefit.” she continued a bit angry at him being able to utilize the naive girl so easily. On the other hand, maybe she was upset at Lola for being so easily used.
Tim shrugged, still smiling. “Serving others makes her happy doesn’t it?” he excused. “Besides, it gave us the chance to be alone.” he said moving a bit closer and reaching out for her hand that rested on the table before her.
Valesque sat back in her chair, effectively breaking the intimacy and rolled her eyes.
“You just don’t seem to trust my sincerity, Beautiful.” Tim complained teasingly as he held his position near her.
“What sincerity?” she mocked.
For some reason the flirtatious Pilot looked slightly hurt, he still held his carefree smile, but something in his eyes seemed to start at this and then take on an almost sad expression.
Valesque was caught a bit off guard by this sudden change in his look, but went on awkwardly. “You probably use the same lines on all the girls, Yorkie.” she continued.
The Pilot put his head to the side, his stubborn lock of blond hair falling over his right eye as he smiled at her again, but somehow his eyes did not seem to loose the sad reflection.
He regarded her silently for a moment. Her pale skin glowed softly in the incandescent light, her red lips looking dark and tempting as her short hair shimmered in waves around her slightly anxious face.
“What if I promise to use all new lines on you?” he suggested half seriously.
The Virrilian woman groaned at the unwelcome thought. “Oh, Puulease.” she moaned, giving him a weary expression, not feeling sorry for him anymore. “Is it impossible for you to be serious for even a second?” she complained.
Space Trippers Book 1: Trippin' Page 16
