Star One: Neutron Star

by Raymond L. Weil

  “The main processor in this panel seems to be running too slow, Commander,” she commented respectfully, seeing Ty come up beside her. “We think some of the silicone chips are fitting too loosely in the main processor, which would explain the slowness in the systems. Darrel is replacing the chips with some new ones that just came in.”

  Bending down, Ty looked into the removed access panel, staying out of Darrels way. It was a mass of colored wiring, computer boards, processors, and other microelectronics, with barely enough room to fit your hands into. Darrel had removed several boards to get to the main system processor. Running a handheld sensor over a number of chips, the tech stopped, pulled two gently from their niches, and handed them to Ty for him to inspect.

  “That’s your problem, Sir,” the tech said. “Both of those chips would probably work fine on Earth, but here in zero gravity they fit too loosely. They were making just enough of a connection for the system to function, but not at full speed.” Snapping two new chips in, Darrel took the two boards he had removed and began sliding them back into place.

  “The ship has never been tested with a full load on its systems,” the female tech said, taking the chips out of Ty’s hand and putting them into a small red quarantine bag. “We have checked the individual systems, but we only finished tying everything together last week. We have found a lot of small problems, a couple even in the programming, but nothing serious.”

  “What’s been the major cause of the problems?” Ty asked curiously.

  “Most of the time it has been these chips!” the female tech replied, pointing to the bag she held. “Lieutenant Commander Williams believes we received a defective batch that slipped through our quality checks. We’ll go through the entire ship later today when the crew is not training and check all the panels they were used in. Our own people have put the new chips we are replacing them with through a rigorous quality inspection. We will also make sure you have plenty of spares in case they’re needed.”

  Ty moved back as Darrel slid his hand out of the console. The two techs began quickly and expertly replacing the cover panels. Finishing, Darrel flipped the system back on and ran a quick diagnostic program.

  Looking satisfied, he nodded to Ty. “Everything checks out, Commander. We have a few more items I want to check from this morning’s training session. I also have two programmers doing some slight modifications to the ship’s systems. It looked to us as if we were seeing the system go into a loop when you were switching from one system to another. They tell me it will take about two hours to finish the adjustments.”

  Ty made his way through the main compartment hatch and down the access tube that ran through the center of the ship. He used his hands to pull himself smoothly along the handholds that were spaced evenly throughout for just that purpose. He passed through the crew’s compartment, the galley, supply storage compartment, the deep sleep section, and the two Science sections until he came to the Engineering section. The walls of the room were crammed with monitors, LED readouts, computer controls, and a number of different control consoles.

  He was surprised to see Karl Velm still on the ship at one console with the top up and one hand buried deep in its entrails. Karl was concentrating deeply, his face wrinkled in a frown while reading the information on a small handheld sensor he was holding in his left hand. Ty stayed quiet, not wanting to disturb the man. His dedication impressed Ty. He knew from meeting Karl on the station and reading his file that the man was very efficient and dedicated to his work. He also knew that the man liked to gamble if he could find a good game of cards going on anywhere on the station.

  Straightening up, Karl saw Ty and began closing the top of the console.

  “Some of the readings for the ion drive monitors were behaving erratically. I traced it down to one of the sensors in this panel,” Karl said, snapping shut the last latch as he closed it back up. “This is going to be a good ship, Commander, once we get all these little nagging bugs worked out.”

  “I just hope we have the time,” commented Ty, wishing they had a few more days to train.

  “Most of the ship has been completed for weeks,” continued Karl, checking the console. “Hopefully, we’ve corrected all the major bugs. Minor problems will always show up in a ship as complex as this one. It shouldn’t be anything we can’t handle.”

  Ty nodded, watching as Karl turned the panel back on. The system rebooted itself with all the lights on the board glowing a steady green. Several monitor screens ran through a startup sequence of information, which Karl watched closely and then nodded, satisfied with the results.

  “I was getting some flickering on several of the lights that monitor the ion drive chambers,” reported Karl, looking over at Ty. “It was only occurring intermittently when Lieutenant Strett activated the backup environmental system. I was also seeing some deviations on several instruments that monitor the pressure in the ion drives.”

  “Keep up the good work, Karl,” Ty said, smiling approvingly at the man. “Hopefully, we can get most of the bugs worked out in the next day or two. When we get a chance, I would like to talk to you some about the ship’s ion drive.”

  “Sure thing, Commander,” Karl responded. “Our drive should be a good one. I helped with the installation. That’s one thing that has really been gone over with a fine tooth comb. I think everyone is going to be impressed by what this ship can do!”

  Ty returned to the Flight Deck, passing the techs once again. They had several panels off in the deep sleep compartment. Reaching the Flight Deck, Ty sat down at his command console and began running through all the controls at his station and the pilot’s station before stopping to take a short break before the rest of the crew returned.

  -

  Ty watched as the crew filed back onboard and took their places. He planned to take the ship through a full preflight launch, including a brief firing of the ion drive if everything went smoothly. This drill would be controlled by Main Control on Star One and closely monitored by Todd Williams, who was the commander of the Space Platform. Because of their abbreviated training schedule, Ty knew they were taking a few risks and shortcuts that normally would not even be considered. Turning the ship’s com on, Ty made a quick announcement to the crew as soon as everyone was back in their places.

  “This will be a full dress drill. We will activate all the ship’s systems and end the drill with the firing of the ion drive. This drill will be controlled by Main Control, and data from the drill will be scrutinized closely to help locate any more problems with the ship. All crewmembers will take their prelaunch positions and stand by for instructions.” Ty flipped off the internal com and switched it to Star One Main Control. “This is Jupiter Probe requesting permission to begin prelaunch drill.” Ty could feel the expectancy and excitement on the Flight Deck as they waited for confirmation.

  “Jupiter Probe, this is Star One Control,” Christy’s clear voice came back over the com in response. “We are go for prelaunch drill, all flight recorders are running. Everything looks green from here. You are cleared to begin. Good luck, Jupiter Probe.”

  “Confirmed Control, and thank you,” Ty responded. “Preflight drill commencing.”

  “All right, Captain, lets see how the ship and crew responds to this drill,” Ty said, looking at Simpson challengingly.

  “This will be the first time we have tried some of this,” Captain Simpson replied, fastening his safety harness and buckling it tightly, indicating for Ty to do the same. “I went over the entire drill during our break and was a little concerned about firing the ion drive while still anchored to the platform. I checked with Lieutenant Commander Williams in the platform’s control room. He assured me that the platform’s station keeping thrusters would have no trouble maintaining position during the drive firing. He didn’t seem too concerned at all. He does have emergency crews standing by, just in case.”

  For the next hour, the crew went through their prelaunch checks, activating the various systems of the
ship one by one and bringing the ship slowly to life.

  “Stand by to go to internal power,” Ty ordered, finally satisfied with the progress the crew had made. Reaching forward with his right hand, he activated a computer-monitoring screen on his console that showed ship power levels. “This will be a check of the emergency fuel cells. Turn fuel cells on at my command.”

  Lieutenant Strett’s console controlled the emergency fuel cells. She quickly ran through the checklist for their activation. Flipping several switches and entering a series of commands on her console, she placed the fuel cells on standby. A quick check of her board showed everything nominal with a steady glow of friendly green lights. “Fuel cells ready for activation, Sir,” she confirmed, looking over at Ty. “We are ready to cut off power from the platform and go on internal.”

  “Star One Control, this is Jupiter Probe. Request permission to turn off external power and go to internal as per drill specifications,” Ty requested calmly, checking his own computer monitor, which indicated the ship’s current power level.

  “Internal power is a go, Commander,” Christy’s firm voice responded.

  “Activate fuel cells and turn off external power, Lieutenant Strett,” ordered Ty, watching his screen.

  This would be the first time that the entire ship had been powered up using only the fuel cells. The fuel cells had been checked before, but this would be the first time that external power was also cut, forcing the ship to depend on the powerful fuel cells for its primary source of power. The fuel cells ran off a mixture of hydrogen and oxygen.

  Ty watched as Lieutenant Strett flipped several switches on her console and rapidly typed in commands on her board. The ship’s lights dimmed briefly, and then came back on full as the fuel cells began generating their continuous flow of electricity.

  “All external power is off, and the fuel cells are activated,” reported Lieutenant Strett, switching on the ten fuel cell banks. Watching her screen carefully, she nodded satisfied as the fuel cells came up to full power. “Power is sufficient to operate all ship systems.”

  Ty confirmed on his own monitor as the power level peaked at 100 percent. “Standby for a run through of all systems on internal power.” Ty wanted to check everything on internal power to see if any more hidden glitches popped up anywhere.

  Another hour passed as all systems were run through their arduous checks. From what Ty understood, every drill to date had found some system problems. He had been trying to run these drills in such a way as to force more problems to surface, but so far everything had performed flawlessly this time around. It was getting close to the most critical parts of the day’s drill.

  “Alright, everyone,” Ty announced over the ship’s com. “Everything has run smoothly so far. We are ready to power the reactor up to minimum power.”

  “Star One Control, this is Jupiter Probe. We are requesting permission to power up the reactor to minimum preset levels.”

  “This is a temporary hold, Jupiter Probe,” Christy’s voice came back quickly. “We are activating some remote sensors. Dryson and Stoler will also be monitoring the reactor power up, and we are still in the process of setting up here.”

  Ty waited patiently several minutes before Christy’s clear voice returned over the com circuit. “Permission to start up the reactor granted, Jupiter Probe. All sensors and recorders are up and running.”

  “Mister Archer, begin reactor power up,” Ty ordered as both Captain Simpson and he watched their instruments intently.

  This part of the drill was the most critical. If there was a problem once the reactor was up and running, the automatic fail-safes could shut the reactor down at the slightest hint of a glitch. There was a small chance the reactor could be damaged if it had to go through an emergency shutdown.

  At his console, Winston began activating the reactor’s long startup sequence, typing in long strings of commands and entering passwords to access the reactor program.

  Down in Engineering, Karl watched as magnetic containment fields were slowly established and built up strength in the heart of the reactor core. He checked several readings and made a few minor adjustments to the fields to ensure their strengths would remain stable.

  As Winston watched, the magnetic fields slowly established themselves and stabilized. The interior temperature of the reactor core began to rise. It took twenty minutes for the core to reach critical fusion temperatures and the fusion reaction to begin. Inside the reactor, the powerful magnetic containment fields held the reaction in check.

  “Power coming online,” Archer reported from his station as his power indicators finally began to rise. “Everything is in the green. We have had a few minor fluctuations in the magnetic containment fields, but Karl and I have made adjustments to compensate.”

  Ty and Captain Simpson watched as the power level slowly rose to 28 percent, which was the maximum level for this part of the test.

  “This is Jarl Stoler,” an older voice came over the com system from Star One, with a trace of concern. “Winston can you double check the backup magnetic coupler? We’re showing a fluctuation in the system that could pose a problem if you need to activate the emergency shutdown sequence.”

  Winston ran his fingers quickly over his reactor control key pad, calling up several complicated schematics. “I had to reset that part of the system manually during startup. One of the subroutines doesn’t seem to be booting up as it should. It shows normal now, but we need to check the programming to see why it’s not starting up with the rest of the backup system.”

  “Okay, Winston,” Stoler replied, satisfied for the moment. “Our readings over here show normal now too, but let’s check that program thoroughly when this drill is over. That subroutine should have run smoothly.”

  “Let’s do a complete system power down from the fuel cells and let everything operate off the fusion reactor,” Ty said, turning to Captain Simpson. “We need to see if the systems have any problems working off the reactor’s power alone.”

  “All right, everyone,” Simpson said over the ship’s com. “The commander wants us to do a run through of all the ship’s systems on reactor power. Let’s get to it.”

  The crew spent the next hour checking the ship’s individual systems, finding a few minor problems but nothing to be overly concerned with. Corrections were made and the ship’s consoles continued to show green lights.

  Ty and Captain Simpson both checked their instruments closely because the next part of the drill involved firing up the ion drive itself at low power. If there were any indications of a problem, the test would have to be postponed. The artificial gravity was turned on and a quarter gravity field established which made the crew feel much more comfortable.

  “Star One Control, this is Jupiter Probe. Everything checks out. We request a two minute test firing of the ion drive at two percent thrust to monitor thrust levels and check onboard systems,” requested Ty, glancing at Captain Simpson who was setting up the ion drive test fire sequence on his console.

  “Everything looks green here, Commander,” reported Simpson, studying the monitor screen in front of him next to the ion drive controls.

  The ship was held firmly to the Space Platform by eight large magnetic grapples. Firing of the ion drive at two percent thrust would be easily countered by the platform’s own station keeping thrusters.

  “You have approval from Commander Larson for a two minute computer control burn at two percent thrust,” replied Christy, keeping her voice calm with only a trace of excitement filtering through as she spoke. “Your systems are tied in to the platform’s station keeping computers, so the platform can counter your ship’s thrust. You may initiate ion drive test program at your discretion.”

  “Captain Simpson, the ship is yours,” stated Ty, nodding to Simpson to begin the firing sequence.

  Ty could feel the higher tension and excitement in the crew. This would be the first time the drive had been fired up.

  Simpson’s hands ran over his
console checking the computer and ship’s systems. Flipping switches and typing in a few key commands, he turned control of the firing over to the ship’s computer.

  “We have a 30-second countdown beginning now until drive activation,” he said, pressing the red drive activation button firmly. “All crewmembers stand by!”

  Ty watched as the computer rapidly counted down the seconds. He felt his heart beating faster and he was breathing deeper than normal. He knew he was feeling the excitement about testing the new ion drive.

  Glancing around the Flight Deck, he saw that everyone was busy at their consoles. On the compartment viewscreens, everyone was in their acceleration couches except Karl Velm, who was bent over his main engineering console down below. At the count of zero, Ty felt the ship shudder slightly. The thrust monitor in front of him showed the ion drive power up. Ty instinctively gripped the armrests of his acceleration couch, but there were no responding gravity forces being exerted by the drive.

  A quiet rumbling could be heard coming from the bowels of the ship as argon gas was super heated and stripped of its electrons to be hurled out the Luxen lined exhaust tubes. The ship’s thrust quickly built up to two percent and held there steadily. Behind the ship, a dual stream of highly charged argon particles created two glowing tails leading away from the ship’s rocket engines.

  The engines continued to fire smoothly, and there was no perceptive deviation in the thrust. The Space Platform’s own station keeping thrusters were firing to hold the platform steady. From Star One, the platform’s thrusters could be seen as small bright jets of white light firing intermittently to maintain the platform in its stationary orbit. The electron tails from the Jupiter Probe stretched out away from the Space Platform, glowing brightly like the spectral tail of a bright comet.

  At the two-minute mark, a red warning light began flashing glaringly on Ty’s console, drawing his attention. An identical light was also blinking on Captain Simpson’s board. A loud alarm buzzer began sounding, which Simpson switched off with a quick flick of his wrist.