by S. H. Jucha
Harbour smiled to herself. The people around the table were no longer feeling defeated by their predicament. They were focused on a way out of it.
“The Pearl,” Darrin exclaimed. “We use the Pearl as the transfer mechanism. She has the equipment and capabilities to load the slush off the surface. Then we create a second transfer method to pump the slush from the Pearl into the Belle.”
“It’s going to be frozen in the Pearl’s tanks,” Yohlin pointed out. “How are we going to get the slush to flow?”
“Heat pipes,” Dingles said. “We have a load of them aboard. Power them up, push them into a tank, and suck up the melted slush like the YIPS does. Where do you think they got the idea?”
Jessie’s hands unclenched. He crossed his arm, one hand stroking his chin, and he stared overhead. It was a few minutes before he spoke. “Captain Harbour, how long can you support all of us … food, water, and operational fuels?”
“At the present rate of consumption, Captain Cinders, we can handle food, water, and any operational needs for about fourteen months, although, at the present rate, the alcohol might run dry in about nine months,” Harbour said, grinning.
“Well, there you go. We only have nine months, at most,” Ituau quipped.
“I think we’re making the six-months quarantine an arbitrary timeline,” Jessie said, speaking as if he was talking to himself. “Before, we were focused on surviving the time span. Now, we have the opportunity to turn the situation into a business opportunity. In a year, we could deliver the equivalent of about sixteen to eighteen loads of the Pearl at the YIPS. That would generate more than enough coin to cover everyone’s expenses and generate a generous amount of profit.”
Jessie continued to think, trying to see all the angles. It was a risk, betting everything on transporting one massive load aboard the Belle, but it answered the primary question of how to prevent going broke.
“Captain Harbour, how would you like to go into business with me?” Jessie asked.
“Let me make sure I understand this concept, Captain Cinders,” Harbour replied. “We use my ship as the transport for Emperion slush. You use the Pearl and your crews to load the Belle, and we stay out here for a year. Then we haul the loads to the YIPS.”
“That’s the idea,” Jessie replied.
“What’s your offer?” Harbour asked.
“That’s our cue,” Yohlin said, looking around at the collection of first mates. Dingles glanced at Harbour, and she tipped her head toward the door. Once in the corridor, the five of them stood around, quietly discussing the idea. They had no intention of going anywhere and not being the first to find out if a bargain was struck.
“You do recognize, Jessie,” Harbour said, when the door closed, “that we’ll be exposing another crew to potential alien contamination.”
“If you were to ask the Pearl’s crew whether they’d risk exposure to a supposed and yet-to-manifest contamination to prevent losing their ship in six months when I declare bankruptcy, what do you think they would say?”
“Prior to this expedition, I wouldn’t have had a clue, but, after spending time with my spacers, I believe that crew would do anything, short of breathing vacuum, to continue sailing.”
“And you’d be right, Harbour.”
“Question answered. Back to business, Jessie. What’s your proposition?”
“I have the people and equipment, and you have the transport carrier. It sounds like an equal partnership.”
“Agreed,” Harbour said, taking the hand Jessie offered, but he didn’t immediately let go.
“But, I’ll still settle my bill with you for feeding and housing my people, and that includes any operational consumables,” Jessie added.
“What about the work your crews are doing on my ship?” Harbour asked. “That’s a fair exchange of services.”
“We owe you for coming out to save our butts. That can never be repaid,” Jessie said quietly.
“Well, business partner, we better set sail for Emperion. I can’t wait to get the next call from the commandant and governor telling us the quarantine is another six months.”
“But we keep the one-year plan to ourselves. Agreed?”
“Agreed,” Harbour replied, and Jessie finally released her hand.
“Let’s inform our people,” Jessie said. “If I know spacers, they’re waiting outside in the corridor to see if we struck a deal.”
* * *
The crews of Jessie’s ships spent the next couple of days recovering the shelter, the equipment, and the rovers on Triton. At one point, Ituau caught up with Jessie for a private conversation.
“Captain, what about the alien site?” Ituau asked.
“What about it?”
“Well, for one thing, Captain, it’s active.”
“True … and?”
“It’s a hazard, sir!”
“To whom, Ituau? We’re the first Pyreans out here, or are you concerned some unauthorized aliens might get trapped in the dome? Besides, it’s not like we can shut it down. Maybe it’ll become a tourist destination one day. Right now, I’m more concerned about taking care of our people and the future of this company.”
“Captain, I’m serious.”
“I understand, Ituau. Having a little fun with you is all.”
Ituau’s mouth hung open for a minute, before her brain engaged. “And there it is… the first sign of alien infection. Captain Cinders has displayed a sense of humor.”
“And who knows what’ll come next?” Jessie replied, waggling his eyebrows.
“It’s good to think we’ll be coming out of this mess on top, isn’t it, Captain?” Ituau said, hitting on the reason for Jessie’s relaxed state of mine and his expansive sense of humor.
“More than I would have believed, Ituau. Regarding the alien site, I intend to make a Pyrean-wide announcement about what we’ve found and the state of the site.”
“But you’re not going to tell them how to enter it or anything like that?”
“No, definitely not that, but Pyreans, in general, have to know what’s out here and the potential danger of an active site.”
“You know they’ll blame us for the site coming online, Captain.”
“Yes, they will, and they’d be right. I thought about excluding that part, but it would come out one day, and that would be detrimental to our reputation. But, that’s one of the reasons that I’m happy to have an alternative location outward of Pyre for longer than the next six months. When nothing else happens at the Triton installation, and we prove to be uncontaminated, it’ll go a long way toward cooling opinions.”
“Understood, Captain.”
“What’s the status of our monitor at the site?”
“Darrin planted a long-range cam that’s far enough away from the site that the dome’s energy isn’t interfering with its software. The Belle lent us a more powerful solar power supply and transmitter. That’s enabled us to upgrade the device’s sensory programs, so that we can monitor full-time any ground or visual changes. However, once we reach Emperion, our ships won’t be able to pick up the signal. The limitation is on our side, but Birdie told me the Belle won’t have any problem receiving the transmissions from Triton even at the YIPS or JOS, except when Pyre blocks line of sight with Triton.”
“That’s good news, Ituau. Let me know when we’ve recovered all our downside assets.”
“Should that include any personnel aboard the Belle, Captain?”
“The Spryte and Annie have to recover any crew that’s on downtime but no one who has a work assignment on the Belle. From now on, we treat the Belle as a sister ship. All general operations requested by Captain Harbour are to continue, but, most important, I need their tank system operational, as soon as possible. That’s a priority! Am I clear on this?”
“Aye, Captain.”
“I’ll have a word with Captain Erring and ensure we’re on the same page. When the crew transfers are complete for the Belle, notify Captain Harbour she’
s free to launch. Dingles estimates the Belle will take three more days than our ships to make the trip to Emperion.”
-38-
Emperion
Jessie’s quick estimates for the load rate of the Belle were significantly in error. The calculations he used were based on a single crew operating aboard the Pearl, but Jessie was supplying two more crews to support the recovery and transfer of slush.
But everything changed once the Annie’s crew got hold of the pile of heat pipes aboard the Belle. The engineers were energized with new ideas, and they decided to bypass the Pearl as the transfer mechanism from downside to the colony ship. Instead, they planted the heat pipes into the fields of frozen gases, liquefied the material, and pumped it into some of the Belle’s pressurized tanks, which kept the slush in a liquid state.
Crew repurposed the collar bases of Jessie’s shuttles, enabling the ships to lift the tanks from Emperion’s surface and transport them to the Belle. Two bays of the colony ship had originally been dedicated to filling the tanks with water and gases via Earth’s shuttles. Now, Jessie’s shuttles, which couldn’t enter the bay with their dangling loads, released them 50 meters out from the Belle where crew, using the colony ship’s small service vehicles, could maneuver the tanks into the bays.
The service vehicles matched velocity with the giant wheel of the Belle, before they could enter the bays. The tanks would touch the bay’s deck, and the ship’s centrifugal force would carry them along with the spinning wheel. Designers of the colony ship had provided for this process by providing lengths of flexible hose, which could manage the pressurized solutions. The slush tanks were pumped empty, transferring the load to the ship’s internal tanks, and the service vehicles would return the tanks to the waiting shuttles.
It was two weeks after the ships had arrived at Emperion before the crews were ready to begin operations and deliver the first tank to the Belle; it was less than a week later before the delivery of the second tank; and it was two days after that for the third tank and every tank thereafter.
Captains, crew, and residents were delighted with the progress of the slush recovery, but, at a meeting aboard the Belle, Ituau burst the principals’ bubbles.
“Captains,” Ituau said, addressing the collection of captains, first mates, and key engineers, “has anyone considered the possibility that we’re being too successful?”
“Explain,” Jessie replied.
Harbour sensed Jessie’s irritation at Ituau’s suggestion, but she kept her power locked down. Ituau’s opening statement had stirred emotions, and those around the table wouldn’t appreciate being managed, at this time.
“Unless my calculations are wrong, we’re delivering a tank to the Belle every two days, and each tank is the equivalent of half of the Pearl’s tank,” Ituau said, glancing to the engineers for confirmations. When she received their agreement, she hurried on. “Then, by my calculations, we’ll transfer eighty loads onboard the colony ship in the first six months and ninety-one tanks worth in the second six months.”
“I don’t understand the issue,” Yohlin said.
“Me neither,” Dingles added. “The Belle can hold three times what the crew might produce in the first year. We just can’t feed everyone for that long.”
“Oh, for the love of Pyre,” Leonard lamented, smacking a hand to his forehead. “You’re talking about the YIPS.”
“Yes, Captain,” Ituau replied.
“Okay, someone let me in on the secret,” Harbour said.
“Following Ituau’s calculations, we would arrive at the YIPS a year later with two ships holding the equivalent of fifteen ships the size of the Pearl,” Jessie explained.
“But that’s good, isn’t it?” Harbour objected.
“The Pearl is designed to dock at the YIPS and be pumped dry. The Belle isn’t. In addition, it takes the YIPS nearly a week to empty Captain Hastings’ ship. How long do you think it would take the YIPS to figure out a means of transferring your slush and then emptying the equivalent of fourteen tanker ships?”
“Probably months, Captain,” Dingles said.
“Which means that if we wanted to repeat our success,” Yohlin added. “Jessie’s ships would be loading the Pearl at Emperion and sailing to the YIPS several times, while we waited for this mother of a transport ship to return to the moon.”
“And let’s not forget that the YIPS will be receiving other deliveries,” Leonard said, dampening expectations even further. “Who is it going to treat as priority?”
“And how much slush can the YIPS process in any one period of time?” Darrin added. “What if emptying the Belle becomes a low priority or a nonstarter because there is more supply than demand.”
“It’s simple. We don’t stay the year,” Jessie said, tapping the table. “We stay six months, and we deliver about seven-and-a-half tanker ships worth. I know that demand for slush is greater than supply, right now, and that gap is growing. I can strike a price for the Belle’s load that will have the YIPS manager eager to do business, especially if I offer the services of my people to expedite offload.”
“Does that work financially in our favor to tie up your people at the YIPS, while the Belle is offloaded?” Harbour asked.
“We empty the Pearl first, and I’ll send the Annie back with her to Emperion. With the crews of the Spryte, Belle, and YIPS, we can expedite the offload in …” Jessie said, eyeing Darrin, who ducked his head into a conference with Dingles and Pete, a Belle senior engineer.
The captain’s meeting went on, while the three men discussed and even argued the quickest means of offloading the colony ship so that they could determine the shortest time needed to strand the Belle at the processing station.
Jessie was intent on discussing a third subject when Dingles, Darrin, and Pete broke apart, and each man wore a broad smile.
“You don’t need me to tell you about their emotional levels,” Harbour said, laughing and indicating the men’s self-satisfied expressions with a wave of her hand.
“Don’t keep us waiting,” Jessie ordered.
“Our idea, Captain Harbour and Captain Cinders,” started Dingles, “depends on whether there will be a continuation of your agreement.” He waited, while the two captains eyed each other.
“Oh, for the love of Pyre, shake on it, you two. You know it’s a good deal,” Leonard said, with exasperation, and the group erupted in laughter and applauded as Jessie and Harbour did just that.
“Okay, then, this is the idea,” Dingles continued, and the three men outlined their plan to add an auxiliary pump station at the end of the YIPS longest terminal arm. The station’s output would be joined to the YIPS delivery pipes, but it would require the Belle to position itself within 50 meters of the terminal arm, so that the crew could link a pressurized hose from the Belle to the pumping station.
“We can keep the Belle farther out,” Darrin added, “if we’re allowed to order more compression pipe of the specifications required. I’d estimate a week or so for every ten meters.”
The captains eyed Dingles, and Jessie asked the first mate, “You want to bring the colony ship within fifty meters of the terminal?”
“We can do it, Captain,” Dingles replied. “We’ve discovered this ship has positional lasers implanted every fifteen degrees around this ship’s circumference. Danny and I can place this ship anywhere we want.”
“With this plan, how long do you need to create this pumping station and then unload the ship?” Harbour asked.
“The setup would probably take about two weeks, and we estimate the unloading could be accomplished in three weeks. We won’t have to spin the ship to shift the tanks around, like the Pearl does. Once we hook up the hose, we pump the ship dry,” Darrin said.
“Dingles, Darrin, and Pete, I want a design with specifications and a materials list,” Jessie requested. “I need it no later than a month before we launch for the YIPS. I want to send the information to the station manager and get his approval. I’ll dangle the Bel
le’s load in front of him. That should get him salivating.”
“Then we’re counting six months from when we arrived at Emperion before we launch for the YIPS?” Yohlin asked.
“Affirmative,” Jessie replied.
* * *
In the days that followed, Harbour noticed Jessie’s crew members waggling their fingers at one another as they passed. When the opportunity presented itself, she asked Jessie what the crew was doing, and she demonstrated, as best she could, what she had seen.
“They’re practicing sign language,” Jessie explained, laughing. “It was how Kasey and I managed to communicate when the dome cut off any standard means of communications. Without it, my crew and I might not have gotten out in time. Our water was dangerously close to running out, by the time we figured out how our rescuers could gain entry to the dome.”
“Are you saying all spacers know this technique?”
“Hardly, Harbour. The crew realized that sign language is an asset, especially if their comms fail in vacuum. That drove them to start learning it. Spacers are like that. They’ll collect any esoteric knowledge that increases their chance of survival.”
“Say something in sign language,” Harbour asked.
Jessie thought, for a moment, and then made a series of quick motions with his hand.
“Okay, what does it mean?” Harbour asked.
“Nothing of consequence,” Jessie replied. “It was a simple greeting from me to you.”
“If you say so,” Harbour replied, and continued to the Belle’s bridge, where she’d been headed. She might never have given Jessie’s demonstration of sign language another thought, except she perceived a spike of tension from him. It caused Harbour to carefully repeat the hand motions in her mind, and she made a mental note to find Kasey.
As serendipity would have it, Harbour passed Kasey in the corridor a couple of hours later, and she repeated the signs for him.
