'I'm not feeling any difference, Patrick,' said Danders.
'That's probably a good sign. Trust me. We are at F T L speed.'
'Fifty three minutes before we pull the plug.'
Davron called Akrins. 'How is it looking down there, Toby?'
'Shaky. My teeth are rattling loose. Is that normal?'
'Pass. Your guess is as good as mine. We have just over fifty minutes before we cut the conductors. Don't you go wandering off.'
The Romulus streaked through the unknown of the Dark Matter: Humans pushing their knowledge of their universe beyond all known barriers.
'I wonder what Burns wanted,' said Danders, just filling in the gaps as the minutes counted down.
'Wishing us Bonne Voyage?'
'Seems odd how he suddenly came on the radio. Still. I'll guess we'll never know now. The ship seems happy if the computer is anything to go by. That shaking of the capacitor. You don't seem too concerned.'
Davron shrugged and said, 'One life lesson worth learning from my father. If there really is nothing we can do about something, don't worry about it. Liz. We're still alive. That's the main thing.'
A disturbing crackle went through the ship and the lights flickered for a few seconds before settling down again.
'One day I'll figure out what the hell that is.'
Chapter 22
'I thought I would take a look for myself,' said Rory Astrom. He tried to stretch his height as he stood next to Lariat.
'How is he?' asked Lariat, meaning Burns.
'In one of his deep reflective moods. Best left alone for now. Mumbled something about Davron being innocent before locking himself in his office. Could that be true?'
'Yes. We think the damage here is bad. Imagine how much worse things could have been if not for Davron knocking out those drones. He's saved millions of lives.'
'But that...thing. It looks harmless enough.'
'It has a simple propulsion system. Based on plasma drives. More advanced than ours. Half is dedicated to flight, the other half is pure laser weapons ability. We haven't figured out how it becomes invisible to our radar. We assume it was released somewhere in space from a mother ship.'
Astrom shuddered. 'Now I'm nervous. They could attack us again anytime they want.'
Lariat said, 'I admit to that being a possibility. Hopefully we'll be able to crack how they dodge our radar so we can counter it.'
'I think I have a tin hat in my wardrobe. I'll fish it out. Murderous aliens apart, it feels good to have the whole world working together for the common good. Our beloved president is keen to address the world tomorrow.'
'Is she aware of the latest developments regarding Davron?'
Astrom said, 'I intend to update her within the hour. That's why I wanted to see the sphere first hand. I'll downplay the possible alien threat still hanging over us.'
'Very wise. She needs to enthuse what a wonderful opportunity we have to create a world we can all live in peace in.'
Astrom chuckled and said, 'You can't possibly believe that will happen.'
Lariat fixed him icily. 'Not a chance in hell.'
With that she went to join her team on the sphere and Astrom took off for his meeting with the president.
Chapter 23
Akrins said, 'Patrick. The shaking is getting more severe down here.'
'The capacitor?'
'Yes. I know you said to expect this but I don't think you meant this much.'
Davron said, 'I can't leave the flight-deck. We only have a few more minutes before we shut the capacitor down. How are the plasma drive units?'
'Running hot where they shouldn't be hot. Within safe operating parameters at the moment, but still rising in temperature albeit slowly.'
Danders said, 'We are only getting readings from the F T L drive units. As long as it holds together for a little while longer we can shut everything down to cool off.'
Akrins asked, 'Couldn't we shut down just the plasma drives? It won't make any odds to our speed.'
Davron explained, 'True. But the plasma drive maintains our course. Leave it be.'
'Ok. But shut it down the instant we're out of F T L speed.'
'Right. Buckle yourself up. We have less than two more minutes. Hang on to your teeth, everyone. This could be interesting.'
'Ninety seconds, Patrick,' said Danders.
The lights went out, flickered and came back on. The ship started to vibrate to the point where standing would have been almost impossible. Precious seconds ticked away and the figures on the huge screen became illegible. Danders struggled to read the seconds as they counted down.
'One minute. I think.'
'Confirmed. Hold it together, Liz.'
Akrins voice came out of the speakers. 'The capacitor is going to break up, Patrick. We need it to shut it down or it'll take the ship with it.'
'Not yet, Toby,' said Davron. 'Thirty more seconds. Almost there, people. Hang on.'
The shaking became even more violent.
Danders said, 'Patrick!'
'Get ready, Liz.'
Liz focussed on the numbers. 'Five, four...'
Three bangs echoed through the ship like gunshot.
'Three, two. Now.'
Liz pressed the sensor to cut the capacitor. Nothing happened. She tried again. Still nothing.
'Patrick!'
Davron stabbed the sensor. 'Nothing. Toby. Hit the manual override to the capacitor.'
'Already doing it. It refuses to budge. Come on damn it.'
Unable to cut the capacitor the Romulus flashed through space out of control at physics defying speeds. A roaring sound filled the ship and the vibrations worsened. In the engine room, Akrins was struggling to his feet with a massive wrench in his hands. He wielded it like a primitive club and took his best shot at the capacitor override lever. It smashed to pieces and capacitor stopped. Something exploded, the lights went out and something was burning somewhere. Akrins was thrown against a wall and that was the last he remembered.
Chapter 24
'Toby. Toby. Come on, pal. Help me out here.'
Akrins heard the words through a dense fog. Then he realised the fog wasn't just in his head but surrounding him. He coughed hard to try to clear his lungs and made it to his feet with Davron's help. The only light was from a large lamp being carried by Davron. Davron jabbed the door control with his shoulder as he held Akrins up. The door hissed open and the pair fell out of the engine room into the corridor. Leaving Akrins on the floor Davron hit the control to shut the door. It didn't move and out of frustration he kicked the door. It slid partially shut and another hard kick had it fully closed.
'What...What happened?' Akrins gasped.
Davron removed his helmet.'Not sure. Something went bang in the engine room then the lights went out. I had to act fast to cut off the air to the engine room to put the fire out fast. Sorry.'
'Hey. I'd have done the same. It worked. The others?'
'Passed out from the smoke. I managed to grab my helmet just in time. This all happened a couple of minutes ago. Are you ok?'
'Yeah. You make a habit of saving my life. How bad is the ship?'
'Both engines out, plasma and F T L drive. We're still going fast with the momentum, but I think below F T L. We need to get everything online so we can get control of the ship.'
The lights flickered into life.
Akrins said, 'That's a good sign. Let's join the others.'
With a little help from Davron, Akrins got to his feet and they made it to the flight-deck. The air was still thick with the taste of smoke but it was clearing and the visibility was good. Matlock, Danders and Belle were helping each other. They were shook-up but not badly hurt.
Belle said, 'Toby. Thank God you're ok.'
'I'll have a prize winning lump on my head but I'm ok. The computer down?'
Davron went to the controls and pressed several sensors and the screen lit up but the image was frozen. He pressed more se
nsors and the computer gradually kicked into life.
'Like everything else it's on emergency backup. We need to get the ship repaired before the life support packs up. Three days max.'
'We're sub-F T L,' said Danders looking at the screen.
'We must have been a full minute at F T L speed longer than we intended,'said Davron. 'We could be anywhere. I can vent the engine room from here so we can get the plasma drives repaired. There. That should do it. We need to let the air improve before we do anything else. Anyone seen Muffin?'
As if in answer, Muffin walked from out of the shadows to Davron.
'Look,' said Belle. 'One of his wings has been damaged. You poor thing, Muffin.'
Looking very sorry for himself he reached out to Belle.
'Come on, Muffin. Let's get you patched up in the sickbay.'
As Belle led the injured ape away, Davron said, 'Our priority is the Romulus. Without the plasma drives working we can't slow down. The only way we'll stop is when we hit something. Like a planet.'
Akrins said, 'The air will be bad in there for awhile longer. We can work in our suits.'
'Let's go,' said Danders.
'I need you here at the computer, Liz. Dale, Toby and I will take care of the engines.'
'Ok. Patrick. Are we going to be all right?'
'Yeah. Sure we will.' He hadn't even convinced himself as he walked back to the engine rooms with Matlock and Akrins. He thumped the door sensor but the door only juddered about one inch open.
'This is where I come in useful,' said Matlock. He took a hold of the edge of the door and put his superior strength to work. Gradually he prised the door open enough for them to enter.
'A couple of the lights are on.'
'Useful,'said Davron. 'We'll leave the door open. The life support will purify the air throughout the ship in time. Forget the capacitor for now. We'll strip the plasma drives.'
'We have spares?' Matlock asked.
'Enough to build one complete engine if we have to. Plasma drives are thankfully easy to work on with relatively few working parts.'
'If you say so,' said Matlock.
'Just let the engineers work our magic,' said Akrins now in his element.
Davron said, 'We need to get the covers off first. Dale. If you can drag that toolbox over here please.'
'It'll make a change from dragging your knuckles,' scoffed Akrins.
'I see you made a complete recovery.'
Matlock undid the securing mounts to the huge blue tool cabinet and pulled it along on its tiny wheels to the plasma drive. He could only watch as Akrins and Davron work on what seemed like hundreds of fasteners that held the covers together. He took charge of all the loose parts that the engineers passed him.
'And you call that simple?'
'In principle,' said Davron. 'Helium three gas enters here. Through this quartz tube, which as you can see is shattered. Fortunately the pressure drop triggered the shut off valve. The gas is confined here before it goes on into here in the helicon antenna where the gas is ionised to form the plasma. Then come the magnetic coils. At least they are fairly bullet proof. They generate the field which confines the ionised plasma. Then comes the antenna which heats the plasma to millions of degrees. This is expelled through this magnetic nozzle. Think of it as a fancy exhaust pipe. The gasses released hits the gasses gone before it, which acts as a barrier and from that we have propulsion. Simple.'
'Yeah, right,' said a bemused Matlock.
Akrins said, 'It all looks fried.'
'Might as well do a total rebuild,' said Davron.
Chapter 25
Liz Danders finally reached an understanding with the computer. None of the data had been lost and the emergency power had that data showing on the screen.
'Now that's what I'm talking about. Maybe now we can see where the hell we are.'
Apart from distant stars, nothing else seemed familiar.
'Ok. Middle of nowhere in particular by the look of it. No pretty planets to make home. Hmm. Interesting. A dull little speck in the distant. Let's take a closer look.'
Danders magnified the image. 'A little bit more. Ah! Patrick. You need to see this.'
'Kinda up to my elbows in hardware at the moment.'
'Then take a coffee break and come up here.'
Matlock said, 'She's right about us needing a coffee break. And I really need a toilet break to go with it.'
'Ok,' said Davron wiping his hands.
Matlock took off his helmet and headed off to a bathroom and Akrins followed Davron to the flight-deck.
'Oh!' said Davron looking at the screen over Danders' shoulder.
'Oh, indeed,' said Danders. 'Remnants of an exploded star or planet or something. Either way that's a lot of rock and crap. And we're heading right for it.'
Belle appeared with Muffin. 'Problem?'
'That,' said Akrins. 'Millions of tons of rocks parked up and waiting to rip the ship to pieces.'
Danders added, 'And the only way to avoid it would be by using the plasma drives. Our stripped down plasma drives.'
Akrins asked, 'How long do we have before ploughing into it?'
Davron used the computer to work that out. 'Just over five hours.'
Belle asked, 'And how long to put the drive unit together?'
Davron said, 'Just one of the units would do it. About twelve hours. Ten if we push it.'
'Then I suggest you push it hard. Very hard.'
'How is the air quality?' Akrins asked.
'Good,' said Danders. 'About ninety-five percent.'
'Then we can at least work without our suits,' said Davron. 'That'll help.'
Matlock appeared with a tray of coffee. 'I don't like the look of that mess. Going through that unscathed looks a little unlikely.'
Davron took a few sips of the coffee and said, 'Coffee break over. We have our work cut out for us. How's Muffin?'
'He'll be fine,' said Belle. 'A dislocation, not a break. He must have flown into something when he panicked. Go. Fix stuff.'
'We're onto it.' He kissed Belle and he returned to the engine rooms with Matlock and Akrins.
Chapter 26
'Time to get serious,' said Davron, stripped to his one piece undies. 'Now we can breathe and actually see what we're doing, we'll lay the new parts out on the floor in the order we need to fit them. Over there will do. Careful with that, Dale. Don't drop anything.'
Akrins took the parts off Matlock and using the uncovered damaged assembly as a guide he spread the replacements out carefully in sequential order on the floor where they wouldn't be tripped over.
'Want me to undo the fuel line?'
Davron said, 'Yes. Make sure that fuel cut-off valve is fully closed first. Place any fastenings we can reuse by the new parts. I'll make a start on the main exhaust manifold. Dale. This thing weighs a ton. I'll need your strength to support it as I undo the last few fittings.'
'A length of line under it attached to the roof will help. There's a mounting right above us.'
Matlock stood on the tool-chest to reach the mounting and threaded the strong line through it, then he jumped down and tied the line off around the exhaust.
'Now you can unbolt the thing.'
'Thanks.'
Davron undid the bolts at both ends of the exhaust. 'I'm leaving the very end. That passes through a series of three airtight seals to the outside of the ship. It's the exhaust that propels us. I don't want to risk any movement to the seals.'
'A good idea,' said Akrins. 'Being sucked out into space through that hole is no way to go.'
'This safety valve is there for just this situation. There. That's off. Now we can pull the thing apart. Toby. Help me ease it free. Dale, You help us swing the exhaust out of the way and we can rest it on the tool-chest until we get it untied. Easy. Easy. There. Now undo the line. Good. It's too heavy even for the three of us to move so we'll just wheel it out of the way on the chest. That'll do it. Dale. We'll need to secure it down.'
br /> 'I'll do that now,' said Matlock, pleased not to be just ornamental.
Davron and Akrins worked well as a team, removing all the old parts one by one. Once they were out of the way, they set about fitting the new parts. The new exhaust was the hardest and Matlock used line to take the load and the three men needed all their combined strength to get the new exhaust into place. Davron secured it with a few of the fixings as Matlock and Akrins pushed against it to keep it steady.
'Just a few more should do it,' said Davron. 'Ok. Leave the line on it while I fit the rest of the fixings.'
Gradually, the whole assembly took shape.
Danders voice came out of the speakers. 'Those rocks are looking bigger and uglier than ever, boys. We have less than twenty minutes before we start hitting a few of them.'
'We just have to fit the covers,' said Davron. 'The control circuitry is built into them so we have to fit them.'
'Then stop yacking and start fitting.'
'That's my Liz,' said Matlock.
Matlock and Akrins held the covers over the unit as Davron reconnected the electrical units that controlled it all. Then they lowered the covers to be secured in place. Akrins and Davron worked at a frantic pace, Matlock passing the fixings as they needed them.
'We're about to hit rock,' said Danders.
Akrins turned the fuel valve on. 'Liz. Fire up Plasma Drive number one.'
They heard the relays clicking into place as Danders tried to fire up the drive unit.
'It isn't coming up to temperature,' yelled Danders.
'Must be a stuck valve,' said Davron. 'We have to take the top cover off.'
'No time,' said Danders. 'We're hitting the small stuff already.'
'Where is that valve?' Matlock asked.
'About here,' said Davron.
'Stand back.' With a huge wrench he struck the cover.
Danders said, 'That did it. Temperature rising. But there's a dirty great lump of rock coming up fast.'