by Garry Ocean
“We couldn’t have been luckier,” Nick was itching to get to the final destination. “What is the registered distance between the first and second coordinates of the beacon?”
“0.3 AU.”5
“Not short, but I think we will decide on the spot, whether to leap in a low regime or to last on hyper-engines.”
“The field tension has reached 19 terraHertz,” Umka reported. “I don’t like the sharp jumps in tension. Neither it is possible to establish the reason for such powerful disturbance.”
Nick glanced at the indicators, the arrow was on 19.2. Nothing critical yet. When the field tension is over 25 terraHertz, the accuracy error of margin increased at the points of entry and exit, while above 30 tH the zero-leaps became unsafe.
“Energy at 50%.”
“Prepare to leap!” Nick made himself comfortable in the chair and fastened the belts. He gave this order on purpose. Now, even if the field tension reaches 25 tH, the computer will not abort the leap. He had no intention to wait several days for the fluctuation disturbances to calm down.
“Tension 23, energy at 65%” Umka reported in monotone. “Starting the countdown: nine, eight…”
“Still, the jumps in the field fluctuation are weird,” Nick thought before plunging into the dark.
Chapter 2
His conscious refused to be regained, he was horribly dizzy, feeling the irony aftertaste of blood in his mouth. Nick opened his eyes with a great effort. He felt as if someone threw sand into his eyes. He tried to blink it off but instead grimaced in pain. The cabin doubled and blurred in his eyes. Nick tried to focus his vision on the control panel. It was blinking with alarming red lights. The air smelled like burnt electric wire and something acerbic. “I threw up,” he thought, and this thought, as strange as it can be, brought him back to reality.
“Umka, give me a status report,” he wheezed, his lips hardly obeying him, and the face tense in convulsion.
“Life support systems function normally, energy at 2%, our coordinates are unknown. Failures in the work of the 4th, 7th, 9th and 12th contours. Conducting further diagnostics.”
“The 4th is the force field emitter,” Nick thought quickly. “The 7th – energy batteries, the 9th – scanners of long search, the 12th is zero-communication channel support.”
“What about the navigation system?”
“All indicators are normal.”
“But you’ve said our coordinates are unknown?”
“The navigation system works as it should. The coordinates are not established because it is impossible to determine the control pegging points.”
“What the hell?” Nick felt cold sweat break on his spine. “In this case, where are we?”
“We are in the star system that is not registered in any catalogue. Continuing scanning. Trying to establish contact with the control navigation beacons.”
Nick unfastened the seat belts and got out of the chair with great difficulty. “I need to put myself in order and collect my thoughts.” He was very thirsty. Nick headed to the kitchen. Only after he drank what seemed like a liter of a refreshing drink remotely reminding orange juice, he felt a little better. “I wish I could take a real shower now, wash off the sticky sweat and barf mixed with my own blood,” Nick dreamed of standing under the shower water, with his head up. Unfortunately, no luxuries like this one on the shuttle, so he had to make do with an ionic shower. With the shower on maximum intensity, Nick started to feel a little better in a short while. “We’ll have to act step-by-step,” Nick decided. “First, let’s determine what happened,” he thought.
“Umka, give me the command cabin’s recording one minute before the last leap. In eight times slower motion, if possible,” he said out loud.
The screen immediately showed a recording. Nick saw himself sitting in the pilot chair. The camera was recording from a side and slightly up, so the indicators on the control panel were clearly seen. Here Nick was giving the order to prepare for the leap, fastening his belts. Umka starts the countdown, which is accompanied by the numbers changing in the upper corner of the screen: 9, 8, 7, 6, 5… Then the screen shows static and the picture starts to elongate like in a distorted mirror. 3, 2… Now it is impossible to recognize any object, because they elongated and transformed into long color lines. The last thing the screen shows is a rainbow followed by complete darkness…
This was not the first time when Nick saw a recording of a zero-leap. Nothing unusual this time. He knew that in a second everything would be repeated in each smallest detail, but in a reverse sequence. The screen started to clear up, now you could see the shape of the control panel, and then Nick leaning back in his chair. Nick was going to speed up the recording when suddenly the central screen was lit with an unbearable flash of light. Nick leaned back reflectively and closed his eyes tightly.
“Stop the recording, reduce the brightness, rewind to before the flash, ones again, stop!” he shouted out quickly.
When the bright rainbows stopped dancing in his eyes, he commanded again, in a calmer voice, “Play it back, Umka, and please 16 times slower.”
This time, the light from the flash was slowly filling the command cabin. Umka made the image a little darker, and now his eyes were not burnt with a blinding pain. Nick’s attention was focused on the central screen. He could see how the life support systems were trying to reduce the brightness of the rays, switching on the light filters one after another. But the machines obviously could not catch up. Alarm signals were going off on the control panel one after another. Nick did not have to look at the indicators. It was clear that the ship was subject to a most powerful outside impact. It was good that the recording was in a slow motion. There was no sound. Nick imagined for a second the howling and wailing of the alarm indicators that was filling the cabin at that moment and shivered.
The entire screen was filled with the sea of burning light, and it was impossible to make anything out in these flames. But then the panel started to count down for withdrawal. The picture was slowly getting smaller, the burning light seemed to flow from the periphery to the center of the screen.
“Blimey!” was the only thing Nick could say then.
In the center of the screen, moving its flaming prominences like countless gigantic tentacles, raged a powerful star. Its magnificence was so mesmerizing with its impossible beauty that Nick’s feeling of danger subsided. He was staring at the flaming sphere in a complete stupor, while the star was devouring the Valkyrie moving at the speed of 500 km/sec. He felt almost with his entire body how the giant gravitational vise of the star is trying to suppress the shuttle’s protection field so that it could be turned into a quick explosion of photons in a second.
The screen started to show static again, the shapes began floating as if someone was smudging them. Then the screen turned completely dark. “An emergency jump-leap,” Nick realized. In this situation, the life support computer made the only right and feasible move. An emergency jump-leap was used so rarely that Nick knew about it only from his short technical training course that was given to them during the freshman orientation. In a critical situation, like the one in which he seemed to have found himself, the computer randomly selected new exit coordinates and, bypassing the old coordinates threw the shuttle out of the danger zone.
The new exit point could turn out to be anywhere from several astronomical units to one parsec away from the emergency jump point. However, Rikard Santush used to tell them that the experienced starship pilots called this a one-way ticket. Allegedly, in an emergency jump-leap one could find oneself spread in the sub-space like butter on a piece of bread. Nick did not know for sure if it were really true or this was just one of the boogieman stories that the freshmen were fed with to be kept at bay. But right now he was alive and quite happy about it.
Nick felt consumed with exhaustion again. Perhaps, this was his body’s delayed reaction to the stress and danger. But he could not relax now. Even though Umka reported that at the moment the shuttle
was safe, he needed to find out urgently what had happened and where they ended up.
His thoughts were in disarray; Nick didn’t know what to start with. Class D starships (Valkyrie belonged to them, even though it surpassed them in terms of its technical capabilities) were completely self-guided and practically did not require any human participation for their operation. The on-board computers stored countless combinations of algorithms for all situations that had happened in the history or could still happen in the future of space travel. The shuttle designers have even provided for a certain reserve for replacement of broken equipment. The pilot was more or less just an observer, and his responsibility was to coordinate the system’s functioning in extraordinary situations. Now it did not make sense to interfere with the workings of the shuttle’s systems. Slight vibration and flashing of the control indicators showed that the Valkyrie was in the regeneration mode. When the regeneration is over, Umka will run a complete diagnostics test to figure out what is going on with the shuttle.
********
“At this point, the most important thing is to determine where we are,” Nick didn’t quite understand what Umka meant by saying “the coordinates are not determined, which makes it difficult to establish the control points for estimations.”
“I’ve never heard of anyone getting into this type of debacle. Not in the sense that no one before me found oneself in such a dangerous proximity to a star. For example, the same Ovsyannikov, when he went on an expedition to a quasar. That was even worse. But for the navigation systems to have lost connections with the zero-space beacons? I don’t remember anything like that. Weird. Is the navigation system back to normal now?” Nick thought. “On the other hand, to get out of the star’s field without grave consequences?” Nick broke sweat on his spine again. “The navigation system must have experienced some failure.”
“Give me the outside overview,” Nick commanded and added quickly, “Darken the floor.”
This time, he was mentally prepared for the free fall, but after everything he went through just now he preferred not only to feel but also to see the matte surface of the cabin’s floor.
The Valkyrie was hanging in the dark of deep space. Of course, this was just an illusion: the shuttle was moving at the same speed as before the leap, about 500 km/sec, perhaps even more. The powerful gravitation of the local star, in whose dangerous proximity Nick found himself, had given additional speed to the Valkyrie, pulling the shuttle into its abyss. But Nick wasn’t interested in that now. The Valkyrie, surrounded by the force field that could be noticed only because of the rare flashes of meteorites it sucked in, was steadily moving away from the star. Nick turned his chair 180 degrees. Now the star looked like a small yellow sphere not more than a ping-pong ball in size. The emergency jump-leap was flawless. The Valkyrie exited at a safe distance, but wasn’t too far from the star either. “At least in this I was lucky today,” Nick smirked at himself sadly.
Something bothered him, but he could not understand what exactly. So much happened in the last several hours that his thoughts were jumping from one thing to another, one faster than the other, and he couldn’t concentrate on any one. Where did this star come from, especially, as it looks, with its own planetary system? According to the space maps, there was nothing here, except for small asteroids, for at least 100 parsec in radius.
“Umka, check the calculations for our leap to sector F-14056/0002, taking into account a jump in fluctuation at the entry point.”
“Done already. The fluctuation didn’t go over 23,5 units, which is why the margin of error at the point of exit was minimal.”
“Then explain to me, sweetie, how did this star show up here?” Nick switched to a joking tone unexpectedly even for himself.
“Judging by the intensity and the spectrum of radiation, it is from the Class G2 stars. Which means, my dear Nick, that it’s been hanging here for at least five billion years.”
“And why not, really?” his thoughts now were running in one direction. “What if, indeed, the researchers found a planetary system in this nebula and for some reason have not yet put it into the inter-stellar register? They gave me safe exit point coordinates, but I, a brainless reckless idiot, decided to correct them as it was convenient for me.”
The puzzle now seemed to start falling in place, and Nick was noticeably happier. If this is so, and it is indeed so because it cannot be any other way, then all he has to do is just establish communication or catch a signal from the research base. It’s a pity, of course, that the zero-communication channel does not work. But not to worry, in a planetary system laser communication will work as well. Of course it will take a lot more time. He caught himself thinking that he was not worried by the possibility of being late to Excelsior. The most important thing is to complete the mission. And what he had to just have gone through is a better than any reality show. Note to self: make a copy of the flight record. Because after the internal investigation they will definitely confiscate all the onboard flight data. Nick was not even doubting that there would be an internal investigation at the highest authority level.
“Umka, what’s with the communication? Any signals from the host base?”
“No, I am scanning all frequencies, including the emergency ones. Our distress signal has been going out since the moment the shuttle exited at this point of the space.”
Nick was a little annoyed that he had to ask Umka rhetorical questions. Of course, had the scans located the research base signals, they would have been reported to him immediately. However, he just couldn’t sit idle, doing nothing.
Curiosity took the better side of him: what made the researchers become so interested in this sector and why are the works being done under such top-level secrecy?
“Umka, any data available about this planetary system?”
“As I already said, this is a Class G2 star, and as of now I registered five satellite planets that are located 0.3; 0.85; 1.2; 3 and 5.5 AUs away from it respectively. More exact data will be available after additional estimation of their eccentricities. We will approach the fifth planet, farthest from the local star, in about seven hours, if we move at the same speed. Farther, there are two dense belts of asteroids, at the distance of 10 and 15 AUs. The first one looks like a mixed class SM: the spectral analysis shows large contents of both silicates and metals. As for the second belt, due to the failure of long-distance scans…”
“Wait a sec,” Nick interrupted her, “Asteroids are of course very interesting, but I am more interested in the planets. Do they have anything unusual or rare? Something that would have interested the Earth researchers?”
“The space is full of the unusual,” Umka was clearly more interested in the asteroids. “The two planets, the second and the third one from their mother star, can be classified as subgroup M. The exact Gauss index without additional research will be difficult to calculate, but, possibly, in the 5-8 range.”
Nick was stupefied. Not completely believing what he just heard, he asked, “What class did you say this star was?”
“It’s not difficult for me to repeat this for the third time,” Umka’s voice was slightly annoyed, or he probably just thought so. “This is a Class G2 star.”
This was unbelievable. Nick nearly exclaimed, “Bingo!”
“Of course, this still needs to be verified,” his head was spinning with possibilities. “Very carefully verified, and not once. However, this is too much of a coincidence: a Class G2 star, with a planet, or, to be more exact, two planets from subgroup M and at 5-8 on the 10-point Gauss scale.”
Nick clearly remembered their exobiology teacher repeating over and over again, “With all the endless diversity in the Universe, it is not easy at all to find a Class G2 star, to which, as you know, our Sun belongs. Especially if this star has its own planetary system. And if, by some chance, it has a planet from subgroup M, to which our good old Earth belongs, it will be unprecedented luck. Such planet is very likely to have conditions for biological life
. And to estimate the likelihood we use the Gauss scale.”
“Slow down! Calculate the shortest path to return to the third planet.”
“The estimate is done.” Nick never got tired of how quick Umka was in her calculations. “Sending the visual to the screen.”
The screen showed a 3D projection of the star system with five spheres, different in size and color. The Valkyrie was showed as a pulsating dot. The dashed line for the estimated trajectory ran close to the last, fifth planet, went around it and ran back to their new target – a light blue sphere that still had no name. Nick immediately understood the logic behind Umka’s decision. The fifth planet’s gravitation may significantly decrease the Valkirie’s speed, which will allow for reduction of time to complete the turn-around maneuver.
“The estimated time to reach the third planet is 19 hours.”
“Great, Umka, let’s do it!”
The light vibration indicated that the slowing down started, the Valkyrie was changing the course.
Only now Nick realized how hungry he was. “Now I need to get something substantial to eat, and then a good sleep will make me a fully-functioning person again.”
The shuttle’s menu was quite diverse, but Nick got tired of it in the entire year of his service. However, this time Nick took great pleasure in constructing several multi-layer sandwiches, not shying away from ketchup, mayo and mustard. Munching on the last piece sitting in the pilot’s chair, Nick mumbled, “Umka, wake me up only if a supernova explodes nearby!” Then he thought a little, and added, afraid that the machine may understand him literally, “Scratch that, let’s work in the routine mode.”
The chair gently hugged his body, taking a horizontal position.
He fell asleep just as quickly as he went into a zero-jump, as his being tired and alarmed took its toll. However, in contrast to the state of no-being during the leap, Nick had some dreams, chaotically interrupting each other and flowing from one into another. The Earth, his parents, grandmother, their house at the Teletsk Lake.
