On the morning of the brown dwarf a cold front moved in over the Cape, leaving the ground warmer than the air. It summoned a ten-foot tall fog bank, making the drive to Genesis treacherous and slow. Somehow, everyone arrived early.
We left our vehicles and took an equally slow, escorted transport to the SPC where the Griffin waited within the fog. Smaller crowds had gathered, looking like ghosts looming in the haze. Above the fog the sky was a stark blue, but the lack of wind left the haze swirling and lingering as we headed for the stairs. It made for a spooky, surreal boarding.
Inside the Griffin, four habitat module seats had already been extended and set to the forward position. Danica, Doc, Shelly, and I assumed our launch positions up front as Erin, RJ, Wilson, and Paris took refuge in the back. A ground crew member on the tarmac signaled detached and clear as I began calling out checklist steps. With the sounds of power and engine systems coming to life, the fog became turbulent and withdrew from around the ship. Com checks with the crew in the back were good, although Paris was slow to respond.
When the checklists were complete and our Flight Director satisfied, we applied gravity repulse and rose up and above the fog layer to the twenty-foot hover. I could feel the tension in the back but their consternation was brief. The all-go signal came quickly. We raised the gear, rotated her nose, keyed in the engage command, and were jolted back in our seats to the OMS whine as Griffin jumped like a stallion and headed for orbit. I heard one joyous yelp from behind us. I suspect it was Wilson.
The climb to orbit, as quiet and smooth as it had been on the test flight, carried us over a choppy Atlantic. Blue ocean whitecaps raced by the lower windows. The vibration and hum of engines captured and held our senses as we listened for anything ominous. On orbit she shifted into the correct attitude and settled down to a gentle ride, leaving us with black sky and stars above and a hazy, golden curvature ahead. Post insertion checklists began as a few errant floating items were corralled and tucked away. We traded smiles and pulled off our headsets, switching ground control to the overhead.
Doc broke the euphoria. “Well, ladies and gentleman, I did not have a chance to go wee on the ground, so with your permission Commander I am going to head back for a moment and try out one of the cock-suckers.”
Shelly burst into hysterical laughter. Danica tried to look offended and turned her head to hide a choked laugh.
I tapped the intercom. “Welcome to orbit, everyone. Everything looks good up here. You have two orbits before we set up for the jump. You are clear to unbuckle.”
Whooping and hollering broke out.
“Gear system power off, Adrian.”
“I see that. You show two amps on navigation redundancy?”
“Two amps.”
RJ floated into the cabin and hung near the ceiling, looking no worse for wear. I gave him a thumb up. “Everybody okay back there?”
“I think Paris may be feeling it. The rest are fine.”
“How about you?”
“It never gets me until about an hour. Maybe it won’t this time. Hey, that was quite a little kick when we left the launch area. Took my breath away for a second.”
“I didn’t hear any screaming.”
“Yeah, but they were pretty stone-faced for a few minutes.”
Shelly continued working. “Power systems are all within less than a volt, less than ten milliamps, Adrian. I’m checking that off.”
“Very good.”
“RJ, soon as we all finish our post launch logs we’ll give you back your engineering stations.”
“I shall await your word with weightless apprehension, Kemosabi. We are looking forward to checkout of the real scanning arrays. Better keep your fingers crossed, my friends. That’s about the only showstopper left.”
Doc returned and floated in beneath RJ.
“How’d that go for you, Doc?” asked Shelly.
“It reminded me of a girl I knew in high school. There was a poem about her. Her nickname was Bambi. Let’s see… How did that go? There was a girl named Bambi from Nantucket. She arrived wearing only a bucket. A longshoreman stared, and finally declared, if you pulled out the tap you could…”
“That’s quite enough, Doctor,” said Danica.
“Sorry, it’s just part of the psych evaluation I was asked to make on the crew.”
Danica looked at me. I shook my head. Shelly broke out laughing again.
“My dear Shelly, you are a wonderful sentiment to have onboard. Ah’m glad you are here. We will be friends. You know, it’s lucky they set up two restrooms on this ship because I believe Mr. Denard may be living in one of them.”
“RJ, would you go back and make sure Paris is alright?”
RJ pushed backwards and disappeared to the habitat area.
Shelly called out, “Cabin leak checks complete, Adrian. Containment pressures stable.”
“Verified. Thank you.”
“Primary APU shut down. Auxiliary APU’s online,” added Danica.
“I concur.”
“Avionic and flight controls all nominal,” said Doc. “That’s all I have. Engineering Station A is complete.”
A few seconds later RJ appeared back at the flight deck door, upside-down and smiling. “Paris will be alright if we’ve brought enough barf bags. Hey! And look at me. No problem at all this time. I think I’ve got it.”
“How is Erin?”
“She’s hanging out by herself back in the science lab. I think she doesn’t want anyone to know she’s sick.”
“Would you go check on her again then, please?”
“Will do, Commander. Third star on the right and straight on 'til morning.”
Danica stopped and laughed. We continued our systems checks and in a few minutes Erin visited us in the doorway, her long ivory blonde hair splayed out in the zero G. I looked back and tried to appear sympathetic. “Erin, are you okay?”
“I’m fine, Commander. If anyone said I was sick, they were mistaken. I’m fine.”
“Everything stowed okay back in the lab?”
“Yes, it’s, whooommp!” She clutched one hand over her mouth, stared wide-eyed for a moment, and disappeared toward the back. RJ’s face took her place. He looked back and then at us. “Oh boy, now both restrooms are occupied.”
I tried to look back through the floating tangle of people behind us. “Has anyone seen Wilson?”
RJ pulled himself upright. “He’s back there re-stowing the seats. I don’t think anyone’s told him we’re in space.”
“Remind him we have just a little over one hour before trans-system injection and you’ll all need to be strapped back in those seats before then.”
“Okie-dokie.”
Danica gave me an amused look. “Is he always that jovial?”
“He is unless you mention how important technology is.”
“Did you notice the stellar drive display has changed to pre-jump status?”
“Pretty impressive, don’t you agree?”
“If our two propulsion engineers weren’t puking their breakfasts up they’d probably be in here hanging over us in awe.”
“Perhaps we should not tell them about it right now.”
“Agreed.”
Danica tapped her checklist tablet. “Spacecraft configuration is complete, Adrian.”
“I agree. Let’s go on to personal log entries.”
With the challenge and response phase of our checklist complete, there was a moment to listen to, and feel the Griffin. She spoke to us through her displays and audio tones, an obedient spacecraft reporting systems status to its keepers. It felt like there was a gladness about her. She seemed alive, and happy to be aloft. Perhaps it was our own emotions impressed upon the thousands of circuits and controls, systems so complex they deserved the title of artificial intelligence. It made me wonder if there were other attributes in there invoked by the Nasebians that I was not aware of. It also made me realize in agreeing to take this mission I had, by default, agreed to trust
them quite a great deal.
Doc and Shelly finally gave up their engineering positions to RJ and Wilson, and after forty-five minutes of monitoring it was becoming apparent nothing would prohibit us from pushing away to make a light speed jump to the G1.9 brown dwarf sector. A single short burst of energy from our stellar drives would put us well past the Kuiper Belt, a favorite expendable resource area for many ships. It would drop us out short of the Oort Cloud, shallow enough that cometary material would not be a threat. From that point our radiological Easter egg hunt could begin. It was likely if we found the correct signature a second short jump might be needed to get within maneuvering distance of the target.
We came around Mother Earth to the orbit withdrawal point. The boards remained reassuringly green. There was applause from mission control over the speakers as we fired the OMS and coasted to a point outside Earth’s stronger influence. With window blast shields closed and forward camera views selected, it was time.
I twisted around and looked through the airlock to the habitat module. They were all strapped in leaning over in their seats staring back. Paris still had a sick bag in his hand. Erin looked okay. There was a tense, silent air of anticipation. It made me smile.
“Okay, flight director and Nav computer are happy with our coordinates. Anybody have any doubts?”
Wilson answered first. “Go.”
RJ, “Go.”
I looked at Danica. She just smiled.
“Okay back there, get ready. Jump in five, four, three, two, one, engage.”
The view screens blurred stars together in a spray of light. It was the smoothest acceleration I had ever felt, a rush of speed with no sensation of physical duress at all. I expected a jolt passing through the quantum tunnel, but there was only a strange feeling of resistance being overcome by energy, like an ocean liner pushing through a deep wave. There seemed to be no physiological or psychological effects of any kind.
Transition to superlight was just as easy. It felt like the weightlessness you get in a roller coaster at the top of a climb. The ride seemed so brief I did not have time to relax. Dropout was the same, a strange impetus wanting to pull us forward in our seats being overcome by an invisible opposing force. As we fell to sublight, the familiar effects from the deceleration compensators took over. The coordinates on the Nav display flashed green. The stellar drive bar graphs fell to idle. Our blurry forward-looking displays cleared to a fresh blanket of stars. We were there.
“It’s our coordinates, Adrian. We’re parked correctly.”
“Open the blast shields and switch to transparency. Let’s see what we see.”
As the panels slid open, the real stellar portrait began to appear. The black backdrop seemed even more densely decorated than the displays had suggested. It was such a crowded carpet of light it almost looked like a radiant barrier in the distance. The faint aura from a red nova glowed near the bottom of the windshield on the right. The hum and clicks from our avionics made the reality of it even more surreal.
One of my overhead left-hand monitors displayed the star field from before the jump. The display next to it reflected the current forward view. The two looked so different it seemed impossible we had traveled in a straight line for just a few brief moments.
“Adrian, Nav is showing the dwarf at our three o’clock. Can I bring her around?”
“Good idea. You have the spacecraft.”
“I have the spacecraft.” Danica switched thrusters to manual and began gently edging her control stick to the right. The Griffin obliged by turning in place. The stars moved slowly to the left, bringing new constellations into view as we turned. Gradually a large red sun dominated the distance. It glowed a very steady state radiance with no clearly defined edge. Instead, it was bordered by a blurry corona of red and purple, back dropped by the inky blackness.
“Oh gosh,” she said, and we stared in awe.
I hit the button to open the habitat portals. “Why don’t you bring us back around so they can get a look back there?” Danica tapped at her control and brought the spacecraft back so that the side view faced the dwarf.
“You guys can unbuckle back there. We’ll be here for a while.” I looked back at RJ and Wilson. “You two may want to take a good look before you begin scanning.”
We listened to oohs and aahs as we went through the remaining systems checks. The Griffin looked clean. The position displays reaffirmed we were right on target.
I looked back to see RJ glide back to his engineering station behind me. We exchanged a smile and nodded. “Would you let mission control know we’ve arrived, all systems go, proceeding with radiographics?”
“Got it.”
“Danica, I’m satisfied here. I want to do a float around. You’ll see the service module hatch open. I’ll be right back. You have the spacecraft.”
“I have the spacecraft.”
I unstrapped and pushed myself up and back. With a half roll I pulled through the B-airlock and into the habitat module. They were all gathered against the portals looking at the dwarf. Erin smiled.
“Commander, it’s incredible. Have you seen one before?”
“No, not like that.”
“The satellites look like diamonds all around.”
“One of those is probably the one we’re looking for.”
“Amazing.” She returned to dwarf gazing.
The feel in the habitat module gave impressions of absolute tightness and integrity. Past the galley, in the sleeping compartment corridor, the hum of the equipment picked up a bit. The sleepers were all closed. I tapped the button for my unit and waited while the door opened. It looked secure. Integrity seemed the same in the gym and the science lab. Past the aft airlock I entered my key code and pulled the service module pressure door open. For a moment I thought I detected an odor, but quickly decided it was just new vehicle smell. Everything looked fine. I sealed it up and headed back.
Back in the habitat module, they were still at the portals staring into space.
“It’s probably going to take several hours of scanning to get a lead on what we’re looking for. RJ’s already at it. Who wants the B-station?”
Wilson jumped in, “I get bored easily. I’ll take it.”
Paris looked sickly glad. Erin remained stuck to the window.
I pulled my way back to the flight deck. Danica glanced back and smiled. “What do you say we bring up the other flight crew and take a break?” I asked.
“Sounds good. Is there a restroom open yet?”
“Both, last I looked.” Without taking my seat, I pushed in and tapped the intercom. “Doc and Shelly, you guys are up.”
Doc coasted in almost immediately, grabbed my shoulders to get by, and worked himself into my seat.
Danica smiled at him. “You have the spacecraft.”
“I have the spacecraft.”
She unbuckled and floated by me, passing Shelly on her way in. We drifted back to the habitat area and took our turn at the windows. The brown dwarf looked like a big red eye in space, staring back at us as though we were newly arrived intruders.
Doc and Shelly had already retracted the launch seats and brought up the oval table and its seats. I went to the galley, found my premixed coffee squeeze bottle, and stuck it in the warmer. Fifteen seconds later it binged and I had a hot coffee dispenser with straw and check valve in hand. Steam came out of the straw in fair warning. The mix seemed to taste better than it ever had. I moved over to an empty seat at the table, maneuvered my butt over it and felt the mag unit sense me, switch on, and suck me down into the seat. I sat sipping hot coffee, feeling quite pleased with my ship, my crew, and myself. Paris gave a disturbed glance as he disappeared back into a restroom. Erin remained stuck at the window. Danica pulled herself into the other restroom and tapped the sliding door shut.
There was nothing to do now but sit back and enjoy the wait. With luck Engineering would find us a radio signature from our target, the Nav system would show us a course and what type
of drive was needed, and we’d wrap up this practice mission in record time. I sat, a man enjoying good fortune in pristine white surroundings with circular portals of infinite blackness.
Danica emerged and hung in mid air for a moment as though undecided. She saw me sipping, decided it was a good idea, and after a galley stop joined me, sucking on hot chicken noodle.
“Can you believe we’re here?”
“It’s still sinking in.”
“I’m usually the stone-faced type, but I admit, I’m feeling pretty giddy.”
“Most of the time this point in the flight is where people are dashing around fixing things that didn’t get done right before flight, or finding things that didn’t operate through departure like they should have. So I confess, I’m not used to this perfection in a spacecraft. It’s quite gratifying.”
“A toast to the Griffin and her crew, then.”
“To the Griffin and her noble crew.” We tapped our plastic bottles and sucked at the straws.
Paris emerged from the restroom. I sat up straight. “Paris, you okay? Can I get you anything?”
He shook his head and grabbed onto the ceiling but a sudden look of distress returned and he waved off and reentered the restroom. The door slid shut.
“What’s your guess on the scan time?” asked Danica.
“Your guess is as good as mine. If they hid it in on one of the big ones, then it’ll be quick. I’m guessing they didn’t. I’ll bet they put it on something too small to land on. That damn Bernard Porre is going to make us rendezvous and EVA for it.”
“Well, you wouldn’t want life to get dull…”
“Hell, I bet they made the package’s signature so close to the natural radiations around here we’ll have trouble isolating it.”
“What is a lug nut locking key, anyway?”
“There’s one lug nut on each wheel of my Corvette that can only be removed with a special lug nut key. It’s so no one can take hard to find wheels off your car.”
“You can’t get another one?”
“It’s a one of a kind key.”
“Well, that was kind of risqué of him to do that wasn’t it?”
As we spoke Erin left the window, went to the galley and began rummaging around. We watched as she pulled out a blueberry muffin, allowed it to float away, laughed, and grabbed her own premixed coffee bottle and heated it. The muffin drifted behind Danica, who twisted around and captured it. Erin took a seat next to her and accepted it with a smirk.
“You sure you want to do that?” I asked, as she unwrapped the muffin.
“Hungry as a bear. Just watch me.” She stuck her coffee to the table and took a healthy bite.
“Should we check on Paris again?” asked Danica.
“Are you volunteering?” I replied.”
“Maybe a few more minutes.”
I turned in my seat and hit the intercom button on the wall. “Hey, you guys up front want any coffee or anything?”
Shelly’s voice came back. “We’re okay. Thanks.”
Wilson floated by headed for the galley.
“Anything?” I asked.
“Lots of it,” he replied. “The sorting will be way harder than the scanning.”
He foraged through the squeeze bottles, found his and headed back to his engineering station.
Erin spoke with her mouth half full. “Hey, maybe we should start a pool on how long it will take.”
Danica laughed. “What are we going to bet? There’s no place to shop.”
Before Erin could reply, RJ called out. “Adrian, you need to come look at this. There’s something strange.”
I pushed out of my seat, went forward and floated in behind him. “What’ve you got?”
“There’s something out there. It’s artificial.”
“Our package? You’ve found it already?”
“No. This is in the other direction.”
“Why are you scanning in the other direction?”
“There was a strange frequency interrupting one of our sectors. It puzzled me. I followed it back to the source. It’s way the heck out there, but there’s something not right about it.”
“Should we care, really?”
A crowd began to gather behind me.
“I’ve got a funny feeling about this.”
“Okay. Target it and see what you get.”
“I just did. I’m waiting for the reflection.”
Danica bumped against my shoulder, trying to see. Wilson turned his seat to face us.
“There it is. Gee, it’s big, and it is artificial.”
“What do we have on the charts and schedules, anything?”
“No. That’s the thing. I already checked that. There’s not supposed to be anything out there.”
“Wow, RJ. There you go again. Let’s run it for telemetry and com. Maybe it’s just a derelict something.”
“Nope. Too big. Here comes more. No telemetry data. No com data. No, wait… There is telemetry. A single signal. I almost missed it. Wow! It’s a weak transponder code!”
“A ship? It’s a ship?”
“It is. Let me run the code through the library. There it is! The Akuma. The Akuma is out there!”
“And you’re sure it’s not supposed to be there?”
“Not according to published schedules.”
“Okay. Open a channel and send a standard greeting.”
RJ rotated over to the com section, typed in a greeting and transmitted it. We waited.
After a few minutes of silence, he spun around and looked up at me. “There’s something wrong. No telemetry. No response to our hail. What are you going to do?”
“Contact Ground Control. Ask them to find out what the Akuma is doing there.”
“You know there’s a thirty minute delay.”
“We’ll wait.”
Chapter 18