Harbinger

by Stephen Christiansen

  “With the captain and crew dead, I am the next in command…”

  “Don’t give me that,” Denise said cutting him off again. She was getting tired of this male chauvinism or even worse, the male only heroism. “Can you get the computers back online? Can you fix the engines? Can you weld this ship back together? Can you do all of this by yourself? I don’t think so, and I for one am not going to sit here and wait to find out if and or when you fail. Now, lead the way and point to what needs to be fixed or get out of the way and I’ll do it on my own.”

  Vincent had to raise his eyebrow at that. He had never had a woman speak to him in such a fashion and he was wondering if he might actually like it. At least she was willing to help and if she was the engineer of the group, and he was suspecting that this might be the case, then he could use her help. She also had shifted the group’s emotional status away from panic and seemed to have inspired them with her speech.

  “A good leader inspires those he commands. A good leader can motivate and encourage. Always find a way to lead.”

  Again the drill instructor’s words came loud and clear. It seemed that he needed the engineer’s support in more ways than one. Vincent knew that he wasn’t a real “people person”, but maybe she was and if this was the case, she might be able to rally these individuals to a collective force that might, just might, be able to help them all survive. It was worth a shot, but they were still going to do things his way.

  “Fine,” Vincent started out. “If you can help, then fine. If not, stay out of the way. I suggest we get the computers back online. That will give us navigations, sensors, and specific ship status. We could then tell if the engines are even salvageable.”

  “But without the bridge…” Tracy started to say. She simply couldn’t finish her sentence; she really didn’t want to know how bad things really were.

  “We have access to the mainframes on the next deck. We can use monitors from there and create a mock-bridge or at least a CIC room.”

  With no other objections and the continued impatient stare from Denise, Vincent gave a “come this way” motion with his hand as he turned back down the hall.

  Chapter: 11

  “What a mess!”

  “This is your mainframe room?”

  “Is any of this going to work?”

  “What a piece of junk.”

  The comments came from just about everyone in the group and perhaps they had a point. The small room that barely held the nine of them had a mainframe computer bank on two of its walls while a third had fallen to the ground. Electrical wires, computer chips, and parts unknown were scattered about the floor. The two remaining mainframes were periodically spurting electrical sparks. The lights to this room were flickering on and off like the rest of the ship and, with the flashing red emergency lights, there was a strobe light effect. This only created the illusion that made the destruction about them seem worse than it really was.

  However, it wasn’t just the disarray of the mainframe and the pieces that had scattered about the floor that had caught everyone’s attention. There were old rags, trash, and even a page from a girlie calendar cutout plastered on the wall. All in all it looked like more like a dorm room at some party university than a professional office dedicated to the ship’s core computer room, the brains of the ship.

  But, not everyone shared in the negativity. Denise stood quiet for some time. Her eyes darted across the room and took in all the information she needed. What others saw as useless junk, she saw as an opportunity.

  For one moment, Denise closed her eyes. In her mind’s eye she could see all of the parts that she needed. As if by some cosmic force, the pieces in her mind were picked up and rearranged, through the “air” and put together into a functioning computer that would fulfill their needs. There were still a few things missing but she was still able to “see” what needed to be done.

  This was how she viewed everything that needed to be fixed, repaired, or assembled. Her mind was a virtual 3D holographic monitor that allowed her to see everything from every angle before she even got started. It wasn’t a talent that she learned or any special gift; it wasn’t even a cranial upgrade. It was just the way she saw her world.

  “Listen up everyone.” Denise’s voice cut through the chatter of disappointment of the crowd. “Here’s what I need. I need my tool kit from the land rover and I’ll need every laptop you can find.”

  There was a moment of silence before Cleo asked the question that was on everyone’s mind.

  “Do you really think that you can fix all of this?”

  “If I didn’t think that there was at least a chance then I wouldn’t have asked for my tool kit,” Denise snapped back. “Now, we can sit here and argue our precious and what little time we may have or you can get my tool kit and every laptop you can find.”

  Again there was a moment of silence.

  “Follow me, this way.” This time it was Vincent who broke the silence as he turned down the hall.

  Vincent led the rest of the group back the way they came and continued past the cryo chamber room. If they were willing to help then he would put them to work and he would load all of them up with gear and supplies.

  “Keep the civilians occupied. Give them something to do, anything, even if it’s a worthless job, and they’ll feel important. It will give them hope and sometimes hope is the only thing that civilians have. They’ll see you as someone in command of the situation; they’ll respect you and stay out of your way.”

  These were more words of wisdom that came back to Vincent’s mind. He had been given instructions on how to handle a city in crisis. He was not only trained on how to handle riots and how to protect people and their property, but he was also taught how to keep those around him from losing moral. Busy hands were happy hands and happy hands followed commands. Now, if he were only more personable.

  “Don’t go down that hall,” Vincent stated as he pointed down the opposite way of the hall he turned down. “The portal at the end leads to a hull breach. Anyone opening it up will be sucked out into space and will threaten the safety and integrity of this ship.”

  “Wait,” Tracy said with trepidation. “How many hull breaches are there? And why aren’t we wearing space suits if it’s that dangerous to be walking around?”

  Vincent turned on the woman. If there was one thing that he detested the most it would have to be a whining individual who couldn’t take orders or someone who had to question everything he said. He especially didn’t like the fear in her voice. This was what he didn’t want to be around. A person like this would freeze in the most inopportune times or make irrational decisions based on panic. He needed people to shut their mouths and follow orders. He had given his statement and that was all that was needed to be said.

  “If you want a space suit, help yourself. There’s a few over there, in that storage unit. However, I’m not going to spend the time to help you get into one. In case you haven’t noticed, this ship is on a timetable that is ticking away, a timetable that doesn’t allow all of us to suit up at this very moment. Now, I’ve already explored the parts of the ship that are needed to navigate from one end to the other. If you follow me, stay close, and do what I do and do what I say, then there won’t be a need for a suit. Now, I’m not here to hold your hand. I’m here to help us survive and if you have a problem with that or the way I’m doing that, then there’s an airlock you can find; just don’t let it hit your ass on the way out.”

  Tears of fear and humiliation started to run down Tracy’s face. Now she wasn’t just scared of the situation that they were in, she was scared of the man who had just publicly humiliated her and almost as much said that he would help toss her out into space. As much as she wanted to cry, right then and there, she felt that if she did, Vincent would lose what little control he seemed to have.

  “Vincent! That’s enough!”

  Doctor Atkins’s voice cut through the tension like a hot knife. He wasn’t just the field doctor th
at was going to stitch up a few lacerations or mend a couple of broken bones; he was also the field psychologist. It was his job to ensure that everyone got along and that none of them broke down. Space travel played a hard toll upon a person’s psyche and facing the challenge of never going “home” again since they were going to be living on a new planet only added to the stress. These factors alone could destroy the emotional well-being of each individual and to the group as a whole. When these were added to their situation that they were in then it would be very likely that they would easily turn on each other or the group could fall apart emotionally. He had to stop this immediately before anyone got carried away.

  Vincent turned on Richard and gave him a stare deep into his eyes as if to challenge him to go one step further. Although Richard didn’t back down, he knew better than to say anything else. This only led to a slight “grumph” from Vincent. Then Vincent turned to look toward Tracy one more time, as if to challenge her to say anything as well before turning back and leading them deeper in the heart of their dying ship.

  They walked in silence for the rest of their journey, with the exception of a slight sob from Tracy as she continued to hold back her tears. No one wanted to say a word that would upset the already unbalanced situation. Their silence only made the other sounds around the ship seem to amplify. The hiss of the coolant sounded like some beast trying to come down upon them. Their own footsteps echoed off of the walls. A metallic piece of the hull fell and its impact on the hall in a different section reverberated through the whole ship. To make matters worse, they were still being reminded of their situation through the computer warnings that resonated throughout the whole ship.

  “Warning...Fatal current trajectory. Destruction imminent.”

  Vincent wished that someone would shut off those computer warnings. They weren’t doing anyone any good and only kept everyone on edge of their impending and “imminent” destruction. There was enough stress and this only made matters worse. He didn’t need to hear this negativity repeated over and over again. He wanted to have either the warnings shut off or just to have the ship explode already.

  Vincent continued to lead them around fallen bulkheads and around sections of the flooring that had fallen away. He helped them around electrical wiring that was sending live sparks in all directions. He led them through portals and down stairs. He eventually led them to the last door that needed to be opened.

  The docking bay was massive and took up the belly of the ship. It stretched from one end to the other and the sides were right up against the parallel halls that ran alongside them. Its height towered several of the floors inside, creating a huge inner, hollow space similar to a ferry boat or an old Naval LST.

  A seam ran down the center of the floor of the docking bay. This was one of the access points to allow ships to enter or exit. This was where the two docking bay plates met when they were closed. When they started to open, massive hydraulics would swing the plates in opposite directions away from the center of the ship. This would allow any spacecraft currently inside to simply drop out of the Harbinger’s belly.

  The second access point for ships to enter was on the left far side of the ship. This was facing the bow. Like the floor of the docking bay, the majority of the wall swung open on large hydraulics. A ship could fly straight in and straight out, one by one, instead of having to drop the whole bottom of the floor.

  In either case, the docking bay would have to be secured. Everything not bolted down would have to be removed and everyone not wanting to be sucked into space would have to leave. After that, all of the portals leading into the docking bay would have to be secured. Once this happened, the oxygen would be vacuumed into holding tanks; there was no need for precious and much needed oxygen to simply be let out into the vacuum of space. Then, and only then, could the engineer in the engine room flip one switch or another to open one of these docking doors. Even then there was a delay set in the release of the doors, just in case some idiot hadn’t heard the warnings or the sirens and had stayed too long and the engineer had to flip the emergency shutdown switch.

  At the other end of the docking bay, at the stern, was where the singularity was kept. This force of nature was actually kept in a room outside the main hull and could be ejected if there was a major problem with the singularity regulator. However, doing so would mean that the ship would no longer be able to warp space and would only be able to run on the regular engines. This wasn’t so bad, except for the fact that space was so large that it would take several years just to reach the nearest star system. Then there was the risk of not being able to eject the singularity far enough and escape its gravitational pull fast enough. Ejecting the singularity was always a last ditch effort and one that was never taken lightly.

  This was a situation that Vincent wanted to avoid. They didn’t have enough supplies to last years, even if they did utilize the food supplies inside the land rovers. He also doubted that the ship could hold out for years, especially without its main power supply. On top of this, with the considerable amount of hull damage that they had sustained, it was only a matter of time before the ship imploded.

  The singularity regulator room wasn’t accessible from here. It was only accessible from the engine rooms and Vincent hoped that after Denise had the opportunity to fix the computer room to help them figure out what was specifically wrong with the ship, she could take a look at the regulator and make sure that it was running properly. The last thing he really wanted was for the ship to implode in on itself around that black hole.

  Inside the docking bay were the two landing ships. They were short ranged ships and designed to enter and exit a planet’s atmosphere. Their wings were semi-circular and more part of the ship itself than an extension. Two stabilizer tail rudders came up at forty five degrees from the ship and ninety degrees from each other. The ship would hold a pilot and co-pilot up front and could hold several individuals in the personal seating area.

  However, the main feature of these ships was their cargo bays. These were designed to carry all the supplies needed for a team to get started on their Terraforming missions. This included quite a bit of boxes, crates, computers, analysis equipment, and plenty of food, medical supplies, blankets, tents, and everything else that the crew would need.

  On top of this, each craft held two land rovers. These all purpose, all terrain track vehicles were designed off of an old fashioned tank chassis. They weren’t very comfortable, but they were able to go just about anywhere and carry quite a bit of cargo, supplies, personnel or samples. Although their performance was reliable, their minor electronics usually left a bit to be desired. Quite often the heater or air conditioning would break down, the electronics to the windows wouldn’t work, the shocks that had been promised to be the state of the art would quit working and finally the windshield wipers would often malfunction and leave the driver unable to see.

  “Alright, you heard your engineer. Find her tools and gather as many laptops as possible.”

  Vincent watched as the cargo hold of one of the landing shuttles was opened. He couldn’t help but notice the boxes, crates and supplies all neatly packed. He couldn’t help but notice the land rovers. He also couldn’t help but notice the old fashioned motorcycle tucked to the side of the craft.

  ‘Who in their right mind takes a motorcycle on a Terraforming mission?’ Vincent thought as he gave the oddity consideration.

  Chapter: 12

  By the time that they had returned Denise had already tossed out most everything that was simply getting in the way and they had to back up as another piece of equipment came flying out of their mock-bridge to join the building pile. The hall behind Denise was now littered with computer parts, excess wiring and all the garbage that had piled up from all the times of neglect.

  It didn’t take long for Denise to hook up a few of the laptops that had been retrieved to what was left of the ship’s mainframe computer. When she was done, it looked as if she had several stations set up and s
he was quite proud of herself for her ability of turning such a disaster to a working mock-bridge.

  Denise started up each laptop, one at a time. As one was warming up and giving her the initial blue screen, she darted to another and repeated the process until she went through all six of them. As she came back to the first one, Denise let her fingers fly over the keys to start bringing up some of the files that she wanted to access.

  The powered laptops added their slight green glow of a light to what little illumination that they had with the flickering lights and the flashing red emergency lights.

  “Can you call up the various systems? I need radar, navigations, ship’s diagnostics, and life support, access to the engine rooms and the singularity regulator and any other system you can think of.”

  Although she hadn’t mentioned his name, Vincent knew that she was talking to him. No one else knew how to get into the files, except for Denise and she seemed to be a fast learner, nor did anyone have the passwords. With some time and effort he was able to bring up what was needed.