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Day 450. There is more discussion about our modified mission than we had when we discovered we'd traveled back in time. We've got a definite split from what I hear, some want to do as the new mission statement orders and others want to return to Earth. I know which side I come down on.
Day 451. Six hours talking to the Captain, Dianne, and Bill have exhausted me. Between us we've made the decision that we must program in to all navigation systems on all shuttles and ships so none can approach Earth until 3 years after our launch date without a command code entry from two or more in the leadership. Then I mentioned that it would have to be hidden in the navigation software that all new ships would download when built in the future.
Day 461. The Captain call me to report to him at first shift. Amity Ho had approached him to report that while doing a diagnostic on the navigation system of Saturn 1 she found a ROM chip that was unreadable. After two weeks of running code she found 4 links in the system to an unknown routines. Two were to diagnostic routines that did not exist and two were to data files that didn't exist. She also found one virus that when activated would cause that reactors to go critical. It was linked to the date function.
The Captain called Bill in, and Bill claimed that these were safeguards that were added to prevent this crew from returning to Earth and causing a time paradox. He did have the codes to disable some of them.
After he was dismissed, the Captain instructed Amity to check every computer and the programming code on the Saturn 1 that linked to any critical system. Naomi was called in and given the additional duty as her assistant.
After everyone else left he called in Desiree and asked her if she could snoop around and find out what position everyone on the ship had about the new mission and how committed they were.
I then knew that she was the Captains personal spy.
On third shift I cornered Heinz and Alice and steered the conversation to the mission. He thought that we might be able to settle in some remote area of Earth.
She was firmly against going back, and her reason was the children. She explained that our great-great-grandchildren would have no place to live once civilization spread to all the continents. Their existence would change history no matter what they did.
I could see the impact of her reasoning as it dawned on him. Tears came to his eyes as he hugged her and stated, “Damn those bastards! We're stuck here. They thought of everything. Since we can't go back, I'll make this a paradise for you Alice. All of our children will have the best.”
Then I asked him, “What about my children when Naomi and I have some?”
Then it connected, “You thought out the situation we're in now. You knew what my decision would be.”
I nodded, “Yes, I haven't discussed this with Naomi. Now I see how to approach the problem. She and I both want to have children. The problem is, what will our grandchildren and great-grandchildren think about our decisions? The civilization we design and build here will have to last. Can we do it?”
Day 500. Naomi informed me during our off shift that the reactor computers had similar routines in the software. Amity was worried that any tampering with them might set them off. Alice had suggested that no direct connection be allowed between any of the computers on Saturn 1 and Buckler.
Day 501, first shift. The Captain made the announcement that anyone that had a computer that was connected to the Saturn 1 was to report if they'd connected it to the Buckler computer system. Then he stated that there was a virus found in the Saturn 1 computer systems and he didn't want it to transfer to Buckler.
Day 502, second shift. Over half the crews computers had been linked to Bucklers computers. There was even a hardwired link reported by the engineering section between the computers on both ships. Mark from the Astronomy section reported that he'd been observing Earth using navigation system on the Buckler and downloading images to Saturn 1 computers.
Day 503. The Captain held a full crew meeting. The information he put out stunned them all. The builders of Saturn 1 had built in programming and other safeguards to prevent Saturn 1 from ever returning to Earth if it traveled back in time. This was hinted at in paragraph 11 of the classified mission statement. We are limited to two courses of action.
First, do as the classified mission statement outlines, or head for the stars and hope that they didn't rig the ship to self-destruct if we left the solar system.
Second, we build a new ship from scratch and do all the computer programming ourselves. That would mean that no computer contact would be allowed between the new and old ships.
Either way we're stuck here for several decades. First thing we must do in either case is set ourselves up to survive and build our own civilization. Comments may be given to me verbally. I don't want any entries on the ships computers that might trigger any of the viruses or traps that Earth build into our systems. As soon as we can build our own computers from scratch, we'll be able to safely enter anything we want.
The astronomy section will use the Buckler's navigation system to do complete survey of the solar system from the asteroid belt out to the Oort cloud. Maybe we can find another wrecked spacecraft for parts.
Day 591. Another spacecraft was located yesterday in the asteroid belt and a possible spacecraft in the Jupiter moon system. Travel to either location would cause a major disruption in the habitat construction.
Amity reported that a whole new computer system came online last week. It is hidden somewhere in the hull of Saturn 1. She still hasn't figured out what activated it, but it contains what appears to be a detailed history of the Earth along with knowledge databases on every subject imaginable. The Captain ripped everyone in the engineering section because they didn't find it when we took the ship apart.
Day 620. Well engineering finally all found the hidden computers, they think. One crew-member remembered that the maintenance schedule listed torque requirements for certain sections of the ship and crosschecked the power and wiring runs. There were seven. After mapping the major sections they found 3 in corridor ceiling sections and the other 4 in bulkheads. They suspect that there are more hidden in the mess and quarters sections. Solid state read only computers only need to be and inch thick, just like the honeycombed bulkhead sections.