Henry enjoyed this time, it seemed that the only limit for his imagination was wat he could do in a day. Before long he had several different teams of his own, working with Winter and by himself. He worked day and night it seemed and was often found sleeping inside the frames of the projects, just to wake up and keep working.
“You really should construct some manner of bed for yourself here.” A voice called up, waking Henry who was resting in some massive components. He looked down to see a thin Asian woman in a UESA flight suit. She was not much older than him but looked like she had already been through things that Henry could not imagine.
“I uh do have a bed here, a whole room in fact.” Henry admitted. “I just rarely use it.”
“I understand that.” The girl replied. “I have been a pilot on long flights and when it is our turn off the controls we sleep where we can.”
“Have we met before?” Henry asked. “I’m Henry.”
“I know.” The girl replied. “We all know who you are and though we technically have met I think you might have been too busy to remember it.”
“Sorry about that.” Henry admitted. “I get lost in things sometimes.”
“Well my name is Nari.” The girl said with a polite nod. “Pleased to officially meet you.”
“I promise to remember this time.” Henry replied as he climbed down. “What is your role here?”
“I am being trained on how to fly this thing when it’s done.” Nari admitted. “There is no real simulators or precedents so we are learning the craft as you build it.”
“That makes sense.” Henry admitted. “I would be glad to answer any questions you might have.”
“Thank you.” Nari replied. “You could start by telling me what this thing is?”
“This is a bit of a pet project that Winter and I are theorizing.” Henry explained. “We are using the wave generators to hopefully get this thing to amazing speeds, however even those speeds cannot reach the speed of light. Faster than light travel is really the only way we will get to some of the places in our universe that we really want to get to.”
“But isn’t faster than light travel impossible?” Nari asked. “Even with your technology.”
“It very much is.” Henry admitted. “But we might have a way to get around it.”
Nari perked her eyebrows. “Around it?”
“Well there is a theory that if we can alter the wave signature of the ship to match the signature of another place we might literally be able to fold space to make the places in the same place simultaneously. The idea that when we turn off the wave, we will be in the new place.”
“That is amazing.” Nari admitted. “Do you think it will work?”
“Only time will tell.” Henry said as he looked up at the still unfinished hull of the craft. “We need to get this all into space first and we will see where we can go from there.”
-
Three
Henry could not help but stare out of the porthole. It was his time for himself but could not help but getting distracted. It had been a decade since he was recruited by the UESA and he could not believe that the dreams, the plans and the projects were real and he was in space. There were times where he thought it was not possible, but every challenge soon fell, every project was made and now he was in space on his ship and enjoying every second of it. It was not the only vessel in space; the world at large had been racing their own and no fewer than twelve separate space agencies as well as the UESA had been created. Henry and the prototype vessel, The Endeavour had been the first, three years ago but it seemed that others followed all the time. The near solar system was slowly becoming crowded as space travel was becoming more and more accessible for anyone who had the time…or money to follow their dreams.
The endeavour had spent a long tour ironing out bugs, exploring the solar system and discovering new technologies. The one remaining piece of the puzzle, the wave space fold drive was still in progress. Henry had a working prototype in the ships engine but it has not and seemingly could not be tested by simulation. Henry sighed, he didn’t realise how tired he had become and focused again at the stars outside the porthole. Though he was on a marvel of technology on a space cruiser that was nearly priceless, it was a thin hole of transparent synthetics that so captivated him. It was very common for people, caught up in the wonder of the new phase of humanity in space to catch themselves mystified by the void of space. It was an eye-catching thing even though it was almost nothing. Though there were stars, nebulae and other things its was ninety nine percent nothing...pure darkness and the literal lack of things. However, this infinite void captivated like nothing else and the reason why would probably elude philosophers for millennia to come. Though as much as Henry was lost in this contemplation it was abruptly interrupted when a beeping indicated an incoming video call. Henry snapped out of his daze and sat next to the terminal and powered the screen on. On the other end was the familiar comforting face of Dr. Winter.
“Henry so glad to have gotten you.” Winter said with a smile. “Contacting ships in space is still so troublesome.”
“This kind of thing was impossible not too long ago.” Henry replied with a smile. “We are literally beaming images of our faces and the sound of our words through the void of space in real time and you think the delays are too much?”
“I suppose I am used to finding problems and immediately overcoming them with innovation.” Winter replied. “So, how are you? Where are you?”
“I am fine.” Henry replied. “As to where...we are near Venus. I cannot believe we are this far out and it seems the borders of easily accessible space move further out every day.”
“I bet you never would have imagined you go to Venus.” Winter asked. “It seems like just yesterday we started putting assets on Mars.”
“It does seem like that.” Henry agreed. “How are things going on Mars colony?”
“We are Mars colony one now.” Winter replied. “The Canadians have their own colony nearby and it is growing pretty fast. Soon we wont be referring to them as Mars colonies, soon they will be Martian countries.”
“How goes the research into terraforming?” Henry asked, a sense of curiosity clear on his face.
Winter laughed. “Well when you and I got this whole thing working we did the easy work. It seemed like everything just came together. Making oxygen from nothing…that is something that is hard to do on such a massive scale. As much as it is working I do not think there will be breathable air on Mars for at least two generations.”
“The scope and size of what you are doing is huge.” Henry added. “This is a thing that takes your mind and the resources you can command. I have no doubt we will see significant progress far before then.”
“We are the creators of miracles, you and I.” Winter replied. “I suppose if you had shown either of us back then where we would be now we would not believe it. We knew this would work, we knew the implications, but it just seems so profound when you look at it objectively.”
“Well you had the idea in your head when you were my age.” Henry said with a laugh. “When you hired me, and told me what you were building and what it could do I thought you were full of it. However, you had the best technology and resources so I stuck around. Joke is on me that you were right about it…all of it.”
“Well it was my dream but you are as pivotal as I was.” Winter replied. “Most of that ship was your doing and when you get that fold drive working it will be you that dwarfs my accomplishments.”
Henry sighed. “Well that is if it works. I have it built, I have taken it apart, put it back together and am convinced that it will fire up. The issue is that we cannot be sure that it will work like we want it to. I don’t want to fire it up and have our atoms scattered through the electro magnetic fields of the universe. Also, there’s no guarantee we will go where we want to go…we might end up stranded on the other side of the universe.”
“Well I believe you will find a way to make i
t work.” Winter retorted. “The possibility that we might find a world, like earth that we can inhabit is something important. Though we are finding much in space I fear that the Earth might lose its ability to be home before we are ready to fully leave it.”
“The earth and the problem of what humanity did to it.” Henry replied with a nod. “The problem that we fight to solve and no matter how many miracles we throw at it, there is always more issues waiting to be revealed.”
“Who has fought against it more than you and I?” Winter said with a smile. “It is a fight we both might fight all our lives...we will do it so others don’t have to.”
“You are probably right.” Henry admitted. “Though
I think we are both committed to that.”
“I should get to the point.” Winter replied. “I realise that we are both doing work that is important but I miss our collaborations. I realise you do not usually take spare time but I would love to see you. Talk to the captain, see if you can take a mission to Mars. I would love your help and your company, even if it is brief.”
Henry nodded. He too missed working directly with Winter and wanted to take a look at the Mars project for himself. “I will see what I can do. I would really enjoy that…I am not just saying that. Anyway, I should get back to working on the drive. Thank you again...for calling.”
“Anytime.” Winter responded. “Can I ask a weird question?”
“Of course.” Henry replied. “You can ask me anything.”
“Do you miss earth?” Winter asked.
Henry paused, he did not really know how to answer, he indeed did feel something drawing his thoughts back to where he had stated but had no real way to answer the question. However, his thoughts were interrupted as a message for him to report to the bridge flashed onto the screen.
“I am sorry Winter, I have to go.” Henry said, clicking acknowledgement to the message on the screen.”
“Everything all, right?” Winter asked.
“It's a report not an alarm.” Henry said with a reassuring smile. “Talk to you soon.”
Henry hung up the vid-call and left his quarters in a hurry. He made his way down the long corridors to the bridge, passing other crew-members busy with their own tasks as he went. Thoughts about his ongoing project and the discussion with Dr. Winter still hung in his head but he forced them back, for when he was on the bridge he preferred to be all business. The door opened to reveal Nari at the con and Captain Basta standing over her with his arms behind his back. This gesture usually meant that he was deep in thought and still regarding something. Henry walked over and took his place over at ops. There were several people on board that could do each position but Henry was the best, he built the systems and new them backwards and forwards. The ship was moving quickly in space and Henry went over the coordinates and travel to orient himself. “What is going on?”
“We have received a signal.” Nari replied. “We think it's a distress call.”
“Think?” Henry asked in curiosity. “Aren't distress signals usually pretty cut and dried.”
“We are barely receiving the signal at all.” Basta added. “It seems to be coming from an asteroid field and it is getting cut off. However, the frequency and the recycling seems to mean distress signal. It is definitely too weak to reach any of the stations and I was considering diverting course to check it out but wanted a second opinion.”
“We are going to help, right?” Nari asked. “Is it not the duty of space vessels to respond to distress calls of other vessels.”
“Duty...perhaps.” Basta added. “But in no way a regulation. Humans have only been capable of space travel for a manner of years. In this situation, it is ultimately up to the command of the ship to determine if it is safe to proceed. We must weigh this ship and crew against those in need.”
“Let's take a look at the situation.” Henry said as he went over the controls. The distress signal was coming from the general direction the ship was going and indeed was coming from a large asteroid field. “It is not unreasonable to believe that a ship might come into distress in a place like that. It looks to be a field made from the collision of two massive asteroids and depending on the composition it could make both navigation and communication difficult…even with the wave form scanning.”
“But what do you think?” Basta asked. “Should we go in or not.”
Henry pondered for a moment. “Ultimately we don't even have to make that decision right now. We are still several minutes out and might learn more on approach. I suggest we change course to the field but make the final decision form the safety of the perimeter.”
“Good idea.” Basta replied with a nod as he sat in his chair. “Make our course there at our best speed. In the mean time Henry, I need you to do you best to make an actual connection so we can find out what is going on.”
“I think if I reroute bandwidth from the elector magnetic amplifier array I can make a signal strong enough to penetrate the field.” Henry suggested. “That way they can piggyback on our signal and they can tell us what is going on.”
“Sounds good.” Basta responded. “Do it please.”
Henry went to work, using his skills to reconfigure the console and the communications array. Within a few moments he had it online. “Establishing a signal now, it's audio only...they can hear us now.”
“Greetings.” Basta began. “We are checking to confirm you are sending a distress signal.”
“Yes, gods yes!” The voice on the other side of the communication. What vessel is this?”
Basta paused and looked at Henry...both knew the potential dangers of giving out ship designations so deep out from earth. There were a lot of different groups out that far, and not all of them worked well together.
Henry chimed in. “We would prefer to be referred as asset one. Depending on the situation we may be able to deliver aid. Please tell us your current status.”
“Thank you, Asset one!” The voice responded. “We are a freighter...we were bringing back assets from some asteroid mining when we got caught up here. We are not a member of any space agency and we do not know ho to navigate out. We took several collisions and our ship is crippled. We are not large if you could tow us out that is preferable if not we will settle for evacuation.”
“I cannot make any promises about your cargo.” Basta replied. “We are not specked to carry cargo we did not have registered.”
“With all due respect sir but damn the cargo.” The voice replied. “We got families back home and we can worry about salvage. That's what insurance is for am I right?”
“Confirmed and affirmative.” Basta responded. “Please submit any telemetry on the are so we may plan the rescue.”
“Are you on your way?” The voice asked, with a tone of curious desperation on his voice.
“Stand by.” Basta said as he gave a signal to Henry to mute the audio.
Henry nodded. “Channel locked.”
“Concerns?” Nari asked.
“Call it a due process.” Basta said. “Everything checks out but something about it doesn't line up.”
“They responded with their telemetry.” Henry added. “They have done and complied with everything we have said.”
“What is the vessel?” Basta asked. “Details.”
Henry nodded. “Seems like a fairly new freighter. It is hard to get much readings, things are all over the place due to the asteroids but it does seem to be an unaffiliated vessel. Twelve crew reported on board and they are reporting no significant injuries.”
“Can we tow them?” Basta asked, looking back to Henry.
“Unlikely.” Henry replied as he started to get a bigger picture on the asteroid field as the ship got closer. “Our ship is more than capable of navigating in and defecting potential debris from damaging us. However, we try to tow we lower it below acceptable safety margins.”
Basta put his hands behind his back. “I will leave this to a vote. This is both dangerous and risks our mission. The
re is a very high piracy risk out here and we have no way of knowing if this is not an elaborate trap. I am literally at odds but would tend to agree to send a subspace to deep space rescue and move on. However, I will weight your opinions toward my final decision.”
“They have families.” Nari added. “Is it not worth the risk to help them. These aren't soldiers, they aren't professionals. These are working class freighter workers. My vote is to assist.”
Basta turned to Henry. “Looks like you are the deciding vote. I will do what the consensus desires.”
Henry took a deep breath. he abhorred the idea of leaving people in danger when they could be helped, but he knew all to well the risk of such an endeavour. He took a moment and calculated some things on his screen. “Given their location and distance from help it would put their chances of survival at 22 percent should we not help. I think that is worth the risk.”
“Then it is decided.” Basta gave a gesture to reopen the communications to the stranded vessel.
“Channel is live sir.” Henri reported.
“Stranded cargo vessel.” Basta spoke officially. “This is asset one and we are heading to your position to take your crew off of your vessel and leave the debris field. Please confirm.”
Waves: The Collapsing Universe Page 2
