Astraeus 5

by Graham M. Phillips

Astraeus 5

  By

  Graham M. Phillips

  Copyright Graham M. Phillips 2013

  Chapter 1

  Will Hunt was looking forward to the weekend. He’d finished at Commbase 2, having fixed the interstellar communications equipment and got it working again and was, at last, on his way back to base.

  His commscreen flashed. It was despatch, no doubt with bad news. "Accept call" he said. Beth Somers, one of the despatch staff, looked back at him.

  "Hi Will, we’ve just had a prompt from Commbase 3. There’s been a voltage spike that’s taken out several key circuits. Fortunately, only in-system comms are out and have been switched to the other Commbases, so we’re covered for a few hours. Can you get over there and take a look?"

  Isn’t there anyone nearer? I’m on my way back to Shackleton for the weekend."

  "Sorry, Will. Everyone else is tied up or is further from 3 than you are. Anyway, you’re the best Senior Tech we have."

  "Flatterer. Ok, will do. Thanks, Beth. I’ll repay the favour some time." Beth smiled back and said "Thanks, Will. You’re a star" as the screen went blank.

  Will sighed, then settled back in his seat and punched in the coordinates for Commbase 3. It was going to take him a few hours to get there. The Aquarius solar system comms hub consisted of four identical comm rooms, evenly spaced around the system. Between them, the comm rooms provided the communication hubs to link the inhabited planets and bases within the Aquarius system, as well as linking Aquarius to the rest of the inhabited galaxy. They were located on whatever was convenient. Commbase 1 was on the planet Ohio, the main planet of occupation in the system, Commbase 2 was on the mining planet Derwent. Commbase 3 was on a large asteroid, Theta 4, that had so far avoided being pulled too far towards any one of the six planets in the system. Commbase 4 was a standalone free-floating station, as there was nothing in that part of the system that could be utilised to cover that area. In addition, there were a number of geostationary satellites orbiting Ohio and Derwent that were used to ensure full planetary coverage but these very rarely needed maintenance.

  He got up and went back into the body of his ship. He was feeling jaded and decided to have something to eat and drink en route to the asteroid, as well as catching a few zzz’s – it had been a long day already and it would be a while now before he could finish for the day. The ship was a Rook class transporter, designed and built to get anywhere within the system quickly, although its outward design suggested otherwise, being basically a cabin with a large box attached to the back of it. Apart from the engines, there was a cockpit with two seats (though it was rare for both to be occupied – the company only sent out two Technicians if one was a rookie, or there was an absolute necessity for the job to be two-handed), a small galley, a bunk room with two bunks and a small amount of storage for clothes and personal items, a compact washroom, complete with shower, washbasin and toilet, a work space, including a work bench, and a large storage area, complete with the most commonly needed spares. Access to and from the ship was by means of a two person airlock. In an emergency, the ship could be lived in for a month or so but the company had always managed to get to anyone who had had a breakdown within a week at most, however far out of range they had travelled.

  When he got to the galley, he chose a lasagne and a coffee from the vending machine, then took them back to the cockpit to eat. That way, he could look at the stars and let his mind wander. Despite all the years he had spent as a Comms Technician, he had never tired of the view. Although it could get lonely at times, as he travelled between jobs, it did give him plenty of time to study. His passion was the start of the electronics age, especially the 20th and 21st centuries, when man was still confined to Earth. He had discovered that there were technicians such as him even back then, travelling between jobs in vans. What he still couldn’t get his head around was that in those early days there were lots of different communications networks and several different companies with their own infrastructure to repair and maintain. Nowadays, because the human galaxy couldn’t function without good comms, it was all done by Galactic Comms, which was responsible directly to the Galactic Council. It was jointly owned by all the governments in each of the systems, as well as having private shareholders across the galaxy.

  Once he had finished his meal, he went back to the galley and dropped the cutlery, plate and mug in the recycler. Once that had been done, he went to his bunk and had a lie down for a short nap, confident that the auto-pilot would get him to Commbase 3 safely – it was perfectly capable of using its proximity sensors to detect and avoid either anything in the way, or on a collision course with the ship. If anything happened that it decided it couldn’t handle, it would sound an alarm that was loud enough to wake anyone not totally deaf or dead. There was also a system of flashing lights built into the walls that would give you a headache if you didn’t deal with it promptly. The audible and visual sensory attack wouldn’t stop until he got back into the cockpit to turn it off.

  Two hours later he awoke and realised that he must be near to Commbase 3. He had obviously been more tired than he had thought, as he’d only expected to be asleep for ten or fifteen minutes. He sat up, ran his fingers through his hair to get it into some semblance of tidiness and scratched his beard. Both were getting a bit long – he already looked a bit wild at times as it was. Feeling slightly more awake he got up and went and wiped his face with a damp cloth, to wake him a bit more. He would have loved to have splashed water in his face but that was out of question in the zero gee environment of his ship.

  Feeling more refreshed, he wandered to the cockpit and sat down in the pilot’s seat, so he could try and work out where he was.

  Hitting a button, he displayed the star chart, which showed him he was only about fifteen minutes from his destination. He went back to his bunk room and put on the spacesuit he would need to travel the short distance from the ship to the comms building once he had landed. Because of the very limited gravity on the asteroid, he also readied the power pack that would propel him – while he enjoyed kangaroo hopping on low gravity moons, this lump of rock’s gravity was so low that any false move on his part would have him floating helplessly in space.

  Suited up, he went back to the cockpit, in readiness to land the ship. Whist the ship would do all the hard work, he liked to be available in case something went wrong. On this occasion, nothing did, and the ship came to stop as close as was safely possible. That still meant that he would have to cross fifty feet of open space.

  Once the ship had landed safely, he killed the engine and said "Call despatch". The comm unit called despatch and a few seconds later, Beth looked back at him. "Hi Will. How’s it going?"

  "Just thought I’d let you know I’ve landed at Commbase 3. I’ll give you a call when I’ve finished".

  "OK, thanks, Will. Good luck in there. Beth out."

  He went to collect the power pack and put it on. Once securely strapped into it, he put on his helmet and did an air leak test – the last thing he wanted was to breathe space.

  The suit proved leak-proof, so he stepped across to the inner air lock door, pressed the "door open" button and, once it was open, entered it. He closed the inner door, clipped himself to the adjacent clip hook and pressed the button to empty the airlock into space. As the air escaped, he was jerked towards the door slightly, but his restraining strap kept him secure. Once it was safe, he unclipped the strap and moved towards the outer door, looked out and jumped the few feet to the asteroid’s surface. He remembered the first time he had done this, when he had forgotten to push himself gently from the top of the door frame and had drifted across the surface, landing forty feet away and feeling somewhat sheepish – much further and he could have hit the outer wall of the c
omm room and hurt himself, or worse.

  Using the power pack, he gently glided over to the comm room outer airlock door, arriving about fifteen seconds later.

  Entry to the squat building was almost the opposite of what he had just done at the ship, except that he was putting air into the airlock this time, not venting it. As he closed the outer door, the artificial gravity and the lights in the building slowly came on, so that he slowly drifted towards the floor. As the inner door opened, he was quickly into the lobby just inside the airlock. He checked that there was breathable air. Having confirmed there was, he removed his helmet, power pack and space suit and hung them on the hooks near the airlock door. It was still somewhat cold but the heating would soon sort that out, so he didn’t mind.

  In front of him was the door into the comm room. He hit the "door open" button to the right of the door and walked into the room. He immediately wished he hadn’t. His eyes and nose instantly recognised that the problem was a lot more than despatch had said – in two or three places around the room, there were sparks flying and the strong smell of burning electronics and insulation and he could see small flames at the far end of the room. As he turned to his left to hit the equipment master power switch, a piece of equipment on one of the racks next to it exploded and threw him across the aisle. He was thrown so hard that he hit his head against the door frame, knocking him out. Unfortunately, he hadn’t managed to hit the switch before the explosion, so the fire continued unabated.