Stiles could not resist the urge to wipe his hands on his trembling pant legs. No matter how hard he rubbed they still felt dirty. Stiles turned toward the door.
In his spiraling imagination, Stiles could hear Peter silently call to him over his retreating shoulder, but Stiles was unable to turn and look back at the scene he created. Closing the cabin door, he rode the lift back to the bridge, entered the command center he so recently exited, and reconnected his jump-jack. The whole excursion took less than a minute, not realizing the portal to hell had been so close.
He pressed the initiation screen icon causing the nav screen to turn from red to orange. Stiles turned the solo yellow key, initiating a flood of numbers.
Stiles opened a direct link to engineering. “All right, this is it. Ali, spin up the engines.”
“Hey, I’ve been calling for you, man; where you been?” Ali asked.
Stiles grimaced. “Uh, Peter got sick after we got to the bridge, so I brought him back down to his room. He’s out for the count. Must be that treatment of Henry’s. Maybe the epinephrine was too much for him?”
“Aw geez; poor guy. He’s really been through the mill. Is everything alright?”
“Yeah, it will be now. I took care of everything. Perry, return to monitoring mode for engineering and the bridge only.”
“Communications are reestablished, Captain. I am waiting for jump to begin.”
Stiles was certain the mission would succeed now that his rightful place was firmly established. The final obstacle was now out of his way—or soon would be.
“Cool,” Ali replied. “Okay, here it goes ….”
* * *
After Henrietta handed out the syringes and cleaned out the radioactive markers from the disposal bin, she thought ahead to what would occupy the next fifteen minutes of her life. She was placed in charge of keeping Perry on his appointed route for one of the most important jumps in human history, and just three short weeks ago she did not even consider becoming a starship navigator. Now here she was—as the saying went—“up to her elbows in alligators.”
She shut down her computer and the remaining power in her medical clinic and opened the hatch to the corridor. Remembering the two or three additional duties she was responsible for, she hurried back to her desk and at the last minute picked up an electronic med-PAD. Programming as she went, Henrietta made her way to the forward sensor room in the upper nose of the ship, smoothly passing nonstop through every deck of the ship.
She opened the tiny access hatch, entering the room to the far right. Starboard, she corrected herself.
The room looked so alien and … well, technical … to her. It was filled to overflowing with bulky sensor stations. It was barely lit with dull, dark-green lighting, designed so the officers could concentrate on their screens. Normally, six techs and two electronic warfare supervisors would be on-station in the small room. In actuality, it was not much larger than three crew quarters jammed together, but sitting all by herself at the main sensor display, at the center of the room, the place looked gigantic to the young, frightened girl.
The first thing Henrietta did after she sat down was jack in her CT-suit. She rotated the connector to ensure a good contact. Next, she injected the epinephrine into her system and felt the sudden jolt of energy. She carefully threw the syringe into a disposal bin, laughing at the thought of becoming so meticulous with medical wastes. Then, after ensuring she was okay, she flipped on her screen to be greeted by a red warning background. Bright, blinking cyan letters at the bottom of the screen cautioned her about the current inadequacies of the navigation system, reinforced by an annoying little chime.
“Destination set to unknown stellar system, 48 AU from central star. Jump cannot occur under present conditions. Do not attempt to enter K-T-space.” At the lowest part of the screen was a scrolling banner with the words: “System lock-out -- System lock-out --”
The target star blinked in the middle of her screen, precisely centered in the bull’s-eye of an orange-red, cross-haired reticule. She grasped the joystick jutting out at the edge of the desk and experimentally nudged it slightly to the right. The reticule shifted off center, causing the star to cross over the second concentric circle outward from the bull’s-eye. The reticule turned muddy-brown in response. Quickly, she brought it back to its soothing orange-red color.
The PA unexpectedly came to life, startling Henrietta half out of her chair. It was Stiles’ voice. She braced herself, expecting to be yelled at for messing with the navigation routines.
“Perry, give me a brief jack-check status. Is everyone currently jacked in?”
“Yes, Captain Essen, I—”
“That will be all, Perry. Henry, I assume you got that.”
“Roger, that,” Henrietta replied.
“Fine. Ali, prepare the engines. I’ll issue the command in a moment. I need to check one more thing. Perry, initiate ship-wide secrecy levels for a moment. I’ll tell you when to open up the bridge and engineering in a few minutes. Ship-wide secrecy levels can be cancelled after we come out of jump.”
Henrietta sat at her lonely station, staring at her red screen. The shrill electronic warning and her mounting nerves chilled her to the bone; she felt like the only person left in an unforgiving universe. She flipped open the PA and tried to contact engineering; nothing happened. She tried the bridge, hoping to talk to Peter before the jump began; again, there was no signal. The universe continued to close in on her.
Henrietta concentrated on long, steady breaths, trying to fight the building adrenaline streaming through her veins. If she was not careful, she might begin to panic in the murky, claustrophobic room. “Perry, are you there?”
There was no response from the faithful ship. She remembered it was probably best not to disturb Perry’s concentration right now anyway, and realized with reluctance that Stiles was correct stopping them from their usual mindless chatter.
Unexpectedly, she found herself missing Perry’s presence with a terrible hollowness, wishing he was back in the room. She sat still for a minute, frozen in time and separated from all of humanity, staring at the evil, red screen.
C’mon, Stiles; what are you waiting for? Henrietta’s knee trembled in mindless nervousness.
Without warning, the screen turned orange. The annoying chime turned into an almost-pleasing strumming chord.
“Destination set to unknown stellar system, 48 AU from central star. Jump cannot occur under present conditions. Do not attempt to enter K-T-space.” Underneath scrolled: “System initiation commencing -- System initiation commencing --”
Finally, Henrietta thought with a sigh, something’s happening. Her heart settled, knowing the end was near. She stretched her knuckles and prepared to take hold of the form-fitted joystick, unsure of when the action would begin.
Her screen began a slow fade to yellow. The accompanying tone sounded pleasing, like a song she could listen to for a long time. In the lower part of the screen, the message changed yet again.
“Destination set to unknown stellar system, 48 AU from central star. Jump will be possible in two minutes. Blue key initiation strongly suggested. Entry into K-T-space imminent ….” Below the system information scrolled, “FTL engines beginning to spin -- FTL engines beginning to spin --”
She felt a growing vibration as the powerful Krenholdtz-Turner engines came to life.
I hope I can do this, Henrietta lamented. Her nerves were working overtime as she realized the importance of what she was about to do. Her knuckles turned white as she squeezed the critical joystick with both hands. Henrietta felt like she was riding a dragon, barely able to control its wild path. The scrolling banner stopped dancing and was replaced with an ominous countdown, causing her to flinch as each number changed.
“90 … 89 … 88 ….”
The seconds remaining to the crew in the comforts of normal space slowly ticked away.
Nervous energy flowed through Henrietta’s body. God, I hate K-T-space. S
he shook herself like a swimmer preparing to dive into a cold pool. Oh crap! She suddenly remembered her med-PAD and, keeping one hand locked on the joystick, barely activated the PAD with the tip of an outstretched finger.
“… 87 … 86 … 85 ….”
Henrietta felt a slight vibration and wondered what part of the jump sequence that alarm represented, but she could not recall anything like that in the simulations she sat through. Are they aborting the jump? Henrietta wondered. Her med-PAD, growing angry over being ignored, went to the next level of alarm and beeped like a heart monitor signaling a Code Blue.
“My med-PAD!” she cried. Henrietta dared not take her hands off the joystick, so she glanced over her shoulder at the mobile PAD just off to her side. She was barely able to glimpse the scrolling text, outlined in an intense red.
“Jump Disconnect -- Jump Disconnect: Campbell, Peter.”
“Ohmigod!” Henrietta screamed. Peter was not set for jump and the deadly sequence had already begun.
“Perry! Answer me; emergency override!”
The ship ignored her frantic pleas.
What do I do? Panic now hit her in the stomach with full-force.
Henrietta tried to connect to the bridge, but was locked out. She then tried Ali in engineering, but to no avail. All internal communications were shut off. She was totally isolated from anyone who could possibly help her.
Stiles, and his stupid, stupid ideas!
Henrietta stared helplessly at the navigation screen, with her unsteady hand keeping the jump destination centered, and the countdown ticking the precious seconds away. And each brief, unstoppable second was one less heartbeat remaining in Peter’s life.
* * *
Stiles sat in his command chair, watching the numbers slowly dissolve. He knew each was a brief second, but wondered why they felt more like the passing of an hour.
Stiles’ body numbed and he felt a chill permeate his bones, freezing his marrow. He wondered if some Native Spirit had reached out to steal the healthy cells in his bones to give to Peter for his final trip to an Indian eternity. Maybe it was Peter’s grandfather, looking out for him in his final moments. He could see the evil grin on that old man’s face slowly fade away. Stiles’ vision grayed as he concentrated on the dwindling numbers dancing before him.
“… 3 … 2 … 1 ….”
The agonizing hours finally passed, allowing Stiles to breathe a long sigh of relief.
As his body felt the first jolt of entering K-T-space, Stiles heard an alarm blaring to his front. At first it went unheeded—like it was muffled in a thick blanket of snow—but it persisted, not allowing itself to be ignored. It came from the vacant navigation station—the one Peter should have been attending. Stiles could not recall how long it had been screaming. It was a critical alarm that he failed to notice until it was too late to do anything about.
* * *
Ignoring the nav screen in the sensor room, Henrietta grabbed the med-PAD and activated its voice command, “Where is Campbell, Peter?”
*CAMPBELL, PETER WAS LAST DETECTED IN OFFICER CABIN A-12.*
Henrietta tore her jack connection away from her CT-suit and stumbled out of her station. She looked for a direct exit but found instead that she was lost in a sea of instruments.
The PAD shouted another warning message, this time uselessly delivered, *JUMP DISCONNECT -- JUMP DISCONNECT: MOREIRA, HENRIETTA.*
She ignored the warning.
From the corner of her eye, Henrietta watched the orange-red reticule morph from brown to black as the target star drifted far off to the side of the screen.
As she found her path and ran to the lift, Henrietta checked the status of the other three boys. They were all still safely in jump-green. In the split of a second, she needed to decide where to go before the sluggish lift arrived: one deck down to the bridge, or an additional deck down to Peter. In an additional split second—before the lift door could open—Henrietta foresaw that Stiles would likely take too long to convince, trying to understand her ravings that were sure to be frenzied. The lift door slid open. She lunged in. Henrietta stabbed “Deck 5 – Crew Quarters.”
She squeezed the only thing at hand to take out her frustrations—the precious med-PAD. “Oh, Peter … oh, Peter ….” She switched the display to “Jump Status” and listened to the countdown.
*… 43 … 42 ….*
She willed the lift to fall faster, but it ignored her desires and continued onward with its slow, sadistic torture. After a lifetime, the door finally relented, pouring Henrietta out into the corridor.
*… 27 … 26 ….*
The distance from the lift to Peter’s cabin—normally only a skip away—now seemed a mile to Henrietta. Rushing to his door, she burst through and found Peter’s unconscious body crumpled on the deck.
“Peter!” Henrietta shouted, but he did not respond.
Falling to her knees, Henrietta dropped the med-PAD and rolled Peter’s limp body over onto his back. She felt a faint heartbeat. It was just barely present.
*… 19 … 18 ….*
With superhuman strength—assisted by the epinephrine coursing through her veins—Henrietta lifted Peter and shoved him onto his bed. It took precious second to force him onto his back to reveal his connector.
*… 8 … 7 … 6 ….*
Henrietta reached for the dual jump connectors on the wall, just above the mattress. She grabbed for one in frantic desperation and jerked it loose. In sheer panic, she fumbled with the jack in one hand, and Peter’s CT-pin in the other. Staring at Peter’s serene face, Henrietta felt his connector firmly snap into place.
*… 3 … 2 … 1 ….*
Henrietta began her uncontrolled fall to the bed. She hit an invisible wall instead. Time failed to continue. In the blink of an eye, she felt her beating heart slow from ninety beats a minute to one. At that moment she knew she was destined to die.
In an instant of realization, the universe opened to Henrietta. Her head faintly buzzed and she heard a billion voices at once, calling through the void. Pure and melodious Hive voices, silently speaking to one another in loving, caressing thought; the crackling hiss and pop of Wasatti, issuing harsh commands; a thousand other strange voices she could not comprehend; and, more frightening than all the others, a million human voices crying out in agony.
Henrietta felt her body dehydrate. She recognized the signs from her medical training and knew the end was approaching. In hazy vision, she saw Peter’s face dance like a mirage just inches below her suspended body. With the last few drops of epinephrine sustaining her, Henrietta reached the second connector and blindly shoved it home into her suit as the distance between her chest and Peter’s sleeping body closed.
Her arm and head gently settled onto Peter’s chest like feathers drifting to the ground. Her overpowering thirst was quenched as nutrients began to flow from Perry’s life-giving hand. Years had passed before she settled fully to the bed, but Death had let go its icy grip.
The jumble of voices in her head ceased, making way for one; clear and strong, “Arietta, is that you?”
Henrietta’s head buzzed again in faint recognition. “Yes, Peter, it’s me. Rest now, we’ll be okay.”
A smile came to Henrietta’s face as the waves of curved space gently passed through their slumbering bodies.
* * *
The Tales of the Antares Rangers will continue in Book 2: The Antares Rangers and the D’war’en Heir.
GLOSSARY
2-14 Corridor – (See Ten Colonies).
Antares (Alpha Scorpii) – M1.5 red supergiant star. Diameter: 600 million miles; age: the red supergiant phase is extremely short, several hundred thousand to a few million years (very late evolutionary stage); surface temperature: 6,000 degrees Fahrenheit. Coordinates: 16.5h, -27°; 520 l-y from Old Earth.
AU (Astronomical Unit) – Average distance between Old Earth and Sol. 1 AU = 92,956,000 miles (8.3 light-minutes).
c – The speed of light.
Chiron
– Planet at Rigil Kentaurus, the primary star of the Alpha Centauri triple star system, (fourth planet of the star system); site of first extrasolar human colony. Third human world of the Ten Colonies. Colony established in 2051 prior to faster-than-light travel. Coordinates: 14.5h, -61°; 4.4 l-y from Old Earth.
CHZ (Continuously Habitable Zone) – Area surrounding a star where the resultant temperatures on a planetary surface could result in liquid water, and possibly sustain life forms similar to those found on Earth, and can stably exist for a time period long enough for life to form (through billions of years).
CT-Suit (caretaker-suit) – Suit worn by crew in a starship that sustains life during jump. The suit is connected to health monitors and sources of nutrients. The CT-suit is also used by personnel immersed in deep-teach stasis crèches.
Empire – Planet at Iota Persei (fifth planet of the star system); first planet established after faster-than-light travel. Sixth human world of the Ten Colonies. Colony established in 2200. Coordinates: 3.2h, +50°; 34 l-y from Old Earth.
EVA – Extra Vehicular Activity.
EWO – Electronic Warfare Officer.
fps – Feet per second.
FTL (Faster-Than-Light) – Superluminal travel in a starship equipped with the Krenholdtz-Turner (K-T) engine (manipulates curved space). First commercial operation: 2153.
Himalaya – Planet at Beta Hydri (second planet of the star system); home for the overcrowded population of Free India. Eighth human world of the Ten Colonies. Colony established in 2280. Coordinates: 0.3h, -77°; 24 l-y from Old Earth.
Hive – Planet at Tau Ceti (third planet of the star system); home of the alien Hive species (allies to humans). Fourth human world of the Ten Colonies. Coordinates: 1.6h, -16°; 11.9 l-y from Old Earth. (Also name of the first alien race encountered by humans, best described as green, bilateral beings made of protoplasm; mute, but telepathic.)