“I am sorry sir. I did not try to kill you—I was simply malfunctioning.”
Al thought, simply malfunctioning? “Are you done malfunctioning?”
“Yes sir, I was taken to the robotics shop and repaired.”
“And you won’t be banging into walls anymore?”
“Not if I can help it, sir.”
“Ok…well…carry-on.”
The two women had heard the commotion and joined the men in the hallway. They all four watched as the little robot returned to its duties.
“Nice robot,” Ana said.
“Yeah, if you like killer robots. That is the same one that almost ran us over. What if he’s not telling the truth about being repaired?” Chris asked Al with a smile.
Everybody knows that robots can’t lie.
****
They gathered in the women’s quarters to eat and discuss their next move. Four people in a huge sleeping ship, with serious decisions required. Still, they were alive and awake, and they had options.
“What do we do now, Mom? Wake the captain?” Chris asked.
Liz replied, “The original plan was to wake a hiber-pod technician, who would then wake a doctor, and then the two would wake another technician. When we had two technicians and a doctor, we could revive the captain.”
Liz was a member of senior staff and knew the ship. She had been on-board for almost a year before they left Earth’s orbit and had become very familiar with the spacecraft. Inside a secret compartment in her pod, that only her hand could open, was her top clearance security key card. Al was relieved she was here. Things should go much smoother now.
She continued, “I would like to try and restore the computer terminals. The computer could tell us a lot. The passenger access was shut down for the trip, and if everything is undamaged, it shouldn’t take much to get them back on-line. The list of who to wake up when is there.”
Chris said, “I could go with you…and maybe Al could help Ana get ready for more patients.”
“We could also make a list of the doctors and check to see what condition they are in,” suggested Al.
They decided Al and Ana would prepare to revive more people. Chris and his mother would go to restore the terminals. They spent a couple of hours talking and getting to know each other and then they returned to their separate quarters with their blankets, sheets, and pillows to get some rest.
In the morning, there was coffee and breakfast packages, and then they gathered their things and went their separate ways to begin bringing their ship back to life.
Chapter Seven
Chris and his mother headed for the computer relay station located in the center of the ring. As they rode the lift up to the hub, she explained what they needed to do.
“There is a relay in the hub that feeds from the ship’s computer under the shuttle bay. We need to close some breakers and re-establish the signal back to the passenger terminals. Pretty simple really.”
Chris unexpectedly said, “I am so glad you’re here Mom.”
Liz looked at her son, a worried look on her face, “You’ve had a rough time here. How are you—I mean really?”
“I’m okay Mom. If you want to know about my adventure, you’ll have to read my journal. I even did some drawings.”
She smiled at him and touched his cheek. “I look forward to that.” She took a step back and looked him up and down, “You’ve grown so much, and you act just like your father.”
He replied, “I should be so lucky.”
“You miss him, don’t you?”
“Yes, mom, very much.”
“I miss him too,” she said, and then added, “They say time heals all wounds.”
“I hope that’s true Mom, I really do.”
Uncomfortable, she changed the subject, “You need a haircut, I’m gonna have to take care of that.”
Chris grinned, shook his head and opened the lift hatch. In the hub, the lights came on, and he made a quick three-sixty around the circular room; gracefully stopping by his mother.
“I couldn’t help myself,” he said.
“I totally understand, but we’ve got work to do.”
“Yes, Mother.”
The panel they needed was embedded in the wall by the main ship door. She opened the panel, reset the breakers, and realigned the signal. A small screen in the compartment lit up with the Excalibur logo. Just like that, they were done.
They couldn’t help but spend a few minutes playing in the hub before they headed back.
****
Al retrieved the code book, and he and Ana sat down to work on their list. Going through the ledger was a tedious and time-consuming job. Rank was used to arrange the book instead of profession, so they had to go through the entire list looking for doctors. They eventually found there were four doctors on-board and one surgeon. As they were finishing up, Al heard the computer powering up.
“Computers are up,” he told Ana.
“All right!” She exclaimed, “Now we can find out what we need the easy way.”
She jumped up and ran over to the desk to find the Excalibur logo displayed on the monitor with a flashing telltale that said—Ready for input.
“Computer, show me a list arranged by priority, of the people to wake when we reach Avalon. Display the first twelve names.”
It took only a few moments to find the doctor they needed.
“It looks like we need to find a Doctor Ian Trask, pod number one-hundred and four. He was to be the third person revived,” Ana explained to Al.
Ana’s mind jumped to a new question.
“Computer, what is our current location?”
“You are located in the habitat ring—LQ fourteen,” said the computer in a strong woman’s voice.
“Not us, you idiot—the ship.”
“Insufficient information.”
“What do you mean, insufficient information?”
“Sensors are currently off-line,” the computer answered.
“Why?”
“Unknown.”
They were blind. Without sensors, the computer had no way to determine where they were.
“Computer, what is the current date?”
“The current date is December twenty-first, two thousand two hundred and one.”
Ana frowned while looking at Al, “We left Earth more than forty years ago?…did we miss Avalon?”
Al admitted, “We could be just outside our solar system or ten years past Avalon, we just won’t know until we get the sensors back. Let’s get ready to wake the doctor, and then we can wake our other technician, and then the captain. When we get there, maybe we can worry more about where in space we are.”
“One problem at a time, right?” she asked.
“Exactly.”
They met up with Chris and Liz on their way to the lift and together they went to the hiber-pod bay to find a doctor. To their dismay, Doctor Ian Traskow had died years ago. He was a shrunken dried-out facsimile of a human being, and would never help anyone again.
Second on their list, was Doctor Jacody Mumbada. When they located his pod, they found a pleasant looking black man around thirty years old that was not only a trauma care doctor but also a cardiac specialist. According to the computer, he was Doctor Traskow’s backup replacement. His pod also had the troubling red light, but he was reasonably young, and through the mist in the window, he looked healthy.
Ana prepared the hiber-pod to begin the revival cycle, and set the timer for eight hours, as she had done with Liz. She stayed behind to monitor Doctor Mumbada’s pod while the rest of them prepared the medical center. After they completed their preparations, the four of them sat down to discuss the second hiber-pod technician they required.
The name that the computer suggested was not the technician that Ana wanted to wake. She had a friend aboard.
“I know this woman—I’ve worked with her before I came to the ship, and she is an excellent technician.”
“Shouldn’t we be follo
wing the computer recommendations,” reminded Liz. She believed in by the book procedures.
“I need to know I have someone I can work with. Under these conditions, we don’t have time for personality clashes,” Ana replied.
“I think Ana is right,” Al said, “We do have to get along with one another if we’re going to speed this up.”
Eventually, Liz caved in, and they decided to wake Ana’s friend. Chris was for whatever Ana was for, so Elizabeth was effectively outvoted.
When the doctor’s pod slid open, Chris and Al loaded him onto the floating stretcher and took him to the medical center. Once there and under Ana’s care, he recovered quickly, his first words were—of course, “Where Am I?”
The castaways went through the explanation process again, introducing themselves and informing the physician of their plight. Ana continued to administer to Doctor Mumbada while the rest went to prepare for another awakening. One more person and they could wake the captain. Hopefully, when they did, they could finally start making some sense of their situation.
Al was elected to return to the habitat ring and have the robots prepare a room for the doctor. Liz told him how to access the robot’s storage space, and tired of sitting, he grabbed his stuff and got moving. An hour later, he was in the robots cubby-hole and standing in front of robot number nine.
“Robot Nine, I need you and your two friends to prepare quarters just aft of mine for Doctor Jacody Mumbada. He will require bedding, towels, work clothing, and a portable medical kit. Can you do all that?”
“Yes, sir. I can acquire what you request. Will he require coffee?”
Al smiled and said, “Sure, why not?”
“Is that all, sir?”
“Yes…but give me a minute to get out of here before you leave. I don’t want you to run me over.”
The robot beeped, hesitated for a second, and then in a little higher voice it said, “I would never do that sir. We are programmed not to cause damage; to anyone or anything. What good is a robot that hurts people and breaks things?”
“Well—keep that in mind.”
“Yes, sir.”
Al boarded the lift and rode it up to the corridor. As soon as he stepped off, the platform went back down to pick up the habitat robots. The lift returned, and the three little robots scurried down the corridor to fulfill Al’s orders. He figured he had a little time to query the computer about Al Clark, and this was the perfect time to do it.
“No data available,” the computer replied.
“How about…the habitat ring, orange section, quarters number twenty-five?” The room where Al awoke.
“No data available.”
Al was perplexed. “Did Al Clark even exist?”
He asked the computer to search for any information concerning an Al Clark. He tried Alvin Clark, Albert Clark, Al* Clark.
“No data available.”
He was getting nowhere fast. Disappointed, he got up and went to see if he could help the others. He could hear them coming down the spoke long before he saw them, the sound of the lift echoing with people’s voices and laughter.
The ship was slowly coming alive, and the sound of happy people improved Al’s mood. He was waiting in the airlock when the lift doors slid open, and laughter exploded into the airlock.
“The doctor believes in voodoo,” Chris explained that Doctor Mumbada was from Haiti.
With a refined Haitian accent, the doctor was trying to explain, “That is not what I said, what I said was medicine comes in many forms.”
Chris shot back, “I’m just saying, if I find a little doll, made of straw, like under my pillow, I’m coming to see you first.”
The doctor was laughing and shaking his head. “You are a silly boy, Christopher.”
After they had installed him in his quarters, they gave him a couple of hours to pull himself together, and then they gathered once again in the women’s quarters. Robot Nine had procured a folding chair for Al, and they made room for the doctor at the table.
He was a tall, light featured black man with short black hair, deep brown eyes, and spoke his English with a slight accent. He was the kind of person where all you had to do was see him, hear a few sentences, and you pretty much knew where he came from.
“What’s all this about voodoo, Doctor Mumbada,” Al asked the doctor.
“Please, call me Cody. I prefer that. We are all one family now, and we do not need to be so formal. I was just explaining to young Chris, that our world is a mysterious place, and there are many things we do not understand. One must keep an open mind.”
“So, you’re saying that voodoo is real?” Ana asked.
“Having spent most of my childhood in Haiti, I have seen many amazing things. Voodoo is not always meant to be evil, and the power to influence another person’s mind can be useful for many things.”
Young Chris, with his hair freshly cut making him look younger still, chided, “I’m still gonna be checking under my pillow.”
The conversation made Al feel hopeful. These were the kind of people that could save their piece of humanity, and it looked like they might have a little fun along the way.
****
The name of Ana’s friend was Kayla Hamilton, and they found her in the same troubling condition as the others; excepting Ana and poor Dr. Traskow. The little red light was prevalent through most of the hiber-pod bay, and why Ana’s pod did not remained a mystery.
They revived Ana’s friend with no problems, told her of their plight, and settled into quarters of her own. Before long she had cleaned up, eaten, and was ready to go to work.
She was a thoughtful, sweet woman. One of those rare people who listened considerably more than she talked. She would listen with all her attention, and made every person she talked to feel special. In her early thirties, she had dark brown hair, mesmerizing green eyes, and had no trouble finding a place in the group.
She was elated to see Ana was the technician that woke her.
Now they had everyone they needed.
It was time to wake the captain.
Chapter Eight
Captain Tobias Effinger was a career officer and an excellent pilot. He only signed up for the mission because once the Excalibur was established in a stable orbit, he would be free to fly the tough little shuttles back and forth to Avalon. Liz met him several times, at different functions, and thought of him as a friendly but no-nonsense type of person. He had confided in her that his application had almost been turned down; due to his age.
He was fifty-two and past his prime, but still turned out to be the best candidate for the job; the best they had left on Earth.
When they gathered around the captain’s pod, they discovered an additional obstacle. His pod had red lights on the outside, and under the cover of the control panel, there were more crimson warnings. The meter monitoring his heartbeat registered twice the normal rhythm, and the captain was quietly struggling for his life.
Ana, Kayla, and Doctor Cody huddled together to discuss this new development.
“We need to get him out of there as fast as possible,” said the doctor. I’m afraid his heart is failing.”
The two hiber-pod technicians looked doubtful.
“Have you ever revived someone in this condition?” Ana asked Kayla.
“Of course not. Most of my revivals were healthy people. I don’t remember anything like this during training.”
“Okay, we need to check the computer for hiber-pod emergency procedures. See if there is anything in there to help,” Ana proclaimed.
The two women ran to the medical center to use one of the computer terminals, leaving the doctor to stare at a struggling patient that he could not reach.
“Computer, show me the emergency procedure for a hiber-pod occupant having heart problems,” Ana requested.
The short computer delay was aggravating, but after a few seconds, it displayed what they needed.
“Just as I thought, there is an accelerated two-hour cycle.
We have got to go.”
They rushed back and started the cycle. Two hours is a lifetime when it’s life or death. They followed the procedure outlined by the computer, and when the pod finally opened up, the doctor took over.
“Okay quick, get him onto the stretcher and to the medical center.”
Chris and Al did as the physician asked, and rushed him to a bed where the doctor could properly treat him. Ana and Kayla helped get the captain off the stretcher and onto the bed, hooked up to an I.V, and then prepare the machines the doctor requested. He asked Ana if she would like to assist him, and told everyone else to leave so they could work.
Waiting outside, the rest of the group discussed the new developments. There were chairs in a small waiting room across the hall and through the two walls of thick dusty plastic, they could see fuzzy images of the doctor and Ana working feverishly to save the captain.
“Just in case, should we go and check the first officer’s pod?” asked Chris.
“He’s next in line so that would be the proper thing to do,” offered Elizabeth.
Kayla asked, “If he doesn’t make it. Will the first officer be able to take his place?”
“What if we’re not able to wake enough people to run the ship?” Chris wondered out aloud.
Al saw worry growing on the faces of his new found friends.
“What if none of it matters, and we’re a zillion miles from nowhere,” added Chris.
Al interrupted their many questions, “I think we might be getting ahead of ourselves, we should have faith in both Ana and Doctor Mumbada.”
Trying to be the voice of reason, he could not allow panic to take over their thinking. “I think we should wait, and give them a chance to do what they do. Whatever happens, we can figure it out from there.”
The surgery took a long time; seemingly forever. Eventually, bloody and tired, Ana came out to talk to them and to report that the doctor told her the captain had a good chance. “He will have to take it easy for a few days, but he should, in time, fully recover.”
AL CLARK (A Sci-Fi Adventure)(Book One) Page 5
