I decided not to point out that I was actually early. “Sorry,” I said as I walked over to join my comrades.
GiS pulled his ankle up to check out his watch. I have no idea why he actually kept a watch on his ankle. It had to be a chimp thing. A way of showing off how flexible he was. He squinted at the watch. “Well, I guess for you, this would be considered early.”
“Did I miss anything?”
Lobi rushed over to me. “Not much,” he said, far too excitedly for me to believe that I hadn’t missed anything. “Only that we discovered where the Explorer is!”
“You did?” I asked.
K-999 looked up from the scanner. “We might have found it. Maybe…”
“Well, that’s not quite as exciting,” I said. “I’m hoping we have something a bit more definitive.”
GiS looked up at the ceiling. “SC, show Baxter our latest info.”
“Of course,” SC said.
Holographic images of the solar system we were in filled the room again. “This is still our current position,” SC said.
A holographic image of Searcher appeared between the second and third planets.
“We have picked up the energy signature of what may be the Explorer here,” SC said. A red O started to flash between the forth and fifth planets. “If this really is the Explorer, then it is 500,000 kilometers away.”
“If?” I said.
“I can’t be certain it’s a true reading,” SC said. “It might be a sensor decoy. A trap. Especially since it just popped up on the sensors ten minutes ago.”
“Oh, that does seem a bit weird,” I said.
“We can’t rule out the possibility that TVTrons can manipulate our sensors,” Kymm said.
“Though I don’t think they can,” Elvin said.
“You base that on what?” Kymm.
“My scientific intuition,” Elvin said proudly.
“That doesn’t make me feel any better,” Kymm said.
“I agree with Elvin,” Lobi said.
“Still doesn’t make me feel better,” Kymm said.
“Me neither,” GiS said. “But we still need to check it out.”
“Shall we power up the shuttles?” I asked.
GiS and K999 both shook their heads. “Not until we get to visual range,” they both said in unison.
“Then what?” I asked.
“We’ll play it by ear,” GiS and K999 both said at once. It was kind of creeping me out.
“You guys should do parties,” I said.
They both glared at me. I decided to back up. I’ve never been one to argue with the “play it by ear” technique of planning.
“SC, bring the Searcher within 10,000 kilometers of the Explorer,” GiS ordered.
“We can not be certain that that reading is the Explorer,” SC pointed out even though there was no need to.
“We know that, SC, but it’s still our best option.” GiS said with a small sigh, showing far more patience with SC than he did with me.
“Acknowledged,” SC said. “Moving toward destination at sub-light speed. We should be within visual range, if there is something to see, in about twenty minutes.”
I felt the Searcher start to move. Well, actually I didn’t feel the ship move, but the stars on the view screen were moving so I knew we were.
After about ten minutes of traveling (which seemed to take ten hours) SC announced, “If that really is Explorer out there, we will be within visual range in ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one, now…”
Sometimes I worried about SC.
We all looked at the view screen. Sure enough, off in the distance was another floating sphere that looked a lot like the one we were on. Only this one was dead in the water. From the distance we were at it looked like a small, dead moon.
“Yep, that’s the Explorer alright,” K-999 said.
“SC, do you pick up any signs of activity?” GiS prompted.
“Scanning now,” SC said.
From the looks of it, I would guess no. You didn’t need SC’s sensors to tell a dead ship when you saw one.
“Actually, yes,” SC said.
Okay, so I was wrong. I’m a kid. I’m going to be wrong from time to time.
“I detect that the Explorer is functioning at .01 percent of power.”
“That can barely be considered functioning,” Chriz said.
“True, but I also detect a faint life sign. From the schematics I would say the life sign is coming from the medical cryogenics lab.”
“You’re saying somebody is in stasis on the ship?” Elvin said.
“I’m not saying it’s true. I’m just saying it appears that way.”
“It’s a trap!” Kymm said.
GiS scratched his chin with his foot. “Perhaps,” he said slowly. “But we can’t take that chance. We have to check it out.”
There was silence for a nano or two. K-999 looked up at SC. “Can we activate the Explorer?”
“Yes, I have their access codes,” SC said.
“Good — then do it,” GiS said.
“I can’t,” SC said.
“Why not?” GiS asked.
“We’re too far away,” Elvin and Lobi both said.
“Oh,” GiS and K-999 said.
“True,” SC said. “I need to be within 1,000 kilometers before I can transmit to the Explorer. Even then I may only be able to activate certain systems. It depends on the damage to the Explorer and its computer system.”
“Can you override their system with your own?” Kymm asked.
“I could, but…”
“If the TVTrons have a backdoor virus on the system it would infect SC,” Chriz said.
“Correct,” SC said. “The only way to assure that doesn’t happen is to…”
“Totally erase the old system and reload SC,” Chriz answered.
“How long would that take?” GiS asked.
“I would estimate fourteen hours,” SC said.
“The Explorer would be totally dead while the transfer was going on,” I said. “Right?”
Elvin and Lobi just nodded.
“Okay, then that’s our backup plan,” GiS said.
“I agree,” K-999. “I have a bad feeling about hanging around here for too long.”
“So what’s the primary plan then?” I asked, though I knew I shouldn’t.
GiS put his arm around me. “We’re going to fly over to Explorer and check her out.”
“Oh,” I said meekly. “Sorry I asked.”
My squad, GiS and I were in my shuttle flying toward the Explorer. While it was still way cool to be flying in space on an actual mission it wasn’t quite as subzero cool as it was the first time. I don’t know if it was because we were flying toward a potential trap or if I was just getting used to the idea of flying actual missions. Whatever the reason, I wasn’t as thrilled as before. That didn’t mean I wasn’t just as determined, though, to get the job done.
I was anxious to get to the bottom of what that life sign was on the Explorer. Even it was trap I wanted to get it over with. This was one of those times where the anticipation and the lack of knowing what we were getting into was the hardest part of the mission.
“Don’t worry Baxter, it will be all right,” GiS said in his most calming tone. I had to give him credit for picking up on my tenseness. Either he was a lot more observant than I gave him credit for, or I was a lot worse at hiding my fears than I thought.
The Explorer was now clearly in our view screen. It was just sitting there dark and lifeless in space. It looked very uninviting.
“We are now within 3,000 kilometers of Explorer,” SC said.
“Okay, Baxter, start slowing our approach now,” GiS order.
I cut the forward thrusters. When you are flying in zero gravity you can’t just jam on the brakes and instantly stop. To stop you basically need to slow down and then use reverse thrusters to neutralize your forward progress. I would let the ship coast for the next 2,000 kilometers, gradually using the stabilizers to bring her to a complete stop.
We could feel the ship’s forward momentum slowing. The Explorer was still growing in our view screen but not nearly as fast as before.
“Reverse thrusters now,” SC said.
I pressed the reverse thrust button. The reverse thrusters fired. I slowly eased up the button. The shuttle came to a complete stop. The Explorer was looming dead ahead of us.
GiS smiled at me though he tried not to show it.
“We are 900 kilometers away,” Elvin said.
“Confirmed,” SC said. “We are now within range for me to broadcast access codes to the Explorer.”
“Begin broadcast,” GiS said.
“Confirmed,” SC said.
We all looked at the Explorer. At first nothing happened. Then a couple of the lights above the landing area blinked on. They weren’t much, but they were a start.
“Is that it?” GiS asked.
“Wait for it,” SC said.
One by one, more lights on the Explorer blinked to life, starting from the bottom and working their way up. Not all the lights came on, but at least half of them did. It still didn’t look all that inviting but at least it didn’t look dead anymore.
“How’s that?” SC said.
“Is that all you can do?” GiS asked.
“Yes.”
“In that case it will do,” GiS said.
“I’ve also got life support going,” SC said.
“That’s good,” I said. “Now can you open the landing bay door?”
“Of course,” SC said. There was a pause. “Slight problem.”
“Can you elaborate?” I asked.
“Yes,” SC said.
We waited.
“Well?” GiS asked.
“I’ve got good news and bad news,” SC said.
“What’s the good news?” Zenna asked.
“I have gravity up in the Explorer and working at 75 per-cent, I have some lights working and life support working on minimal.”
“If that’s the good news, what’s the bad?” I asked.
“Well,” SC said slowly. “I can only get the bay door open 25 percent. Plus I can’t activate any of the landing bay bots. For that matter I can’t activate any of the bots aboard.”
There was more silence.
“So we’ll do it the old-fashioned way, without bots,” Zenna said. “I’m sure back before bots, people landed on light-speed ships without bots.”
Okay, her words didn’t exactly make total sense, yet somehow they made enough sense. We were able to do this without bots. Sure, bots helped stop us. Sure, bots turned us around. Sure, bots loaded us with fuel. All of those were useful functions but we could get by without them.
“The shuttle can still fit in the door?” I asked.
“With over two meters to spare on each side,” SC said.
“Let’s do it,” I said.
I looked over at GiS. He nodded and pointed forward. I started up the engines and eased her forward. It was funny. I was in a hurry to reach the Explorer, yet I wasn’t in a hurry. I wanted to get it over with, to prove that I could do it. But I was also a little worried that I was in over my head. Landing on a mostly dead Explorer with the door mostly closed! Was I nuts?
I took a deep breath as we drew nearer and nearer to the Explorer. No, I wasn’t crazy, nuts or loono. I was a galactic scout. I had a job to do and I was going to do it.
“This is going to be tricky,” GiS said, not being all that helpful. “But quite doable,” he added, trying to be helpful.
Normal procedure is to cut power 200 kilometers from your landing target and to drift in. Despite the fact that I was actually going quite slowly (by outer space speeds), I cut the power at 300 kilometers. I wanted to be extra careful. We didn’t have to get there fast. We just needed to get there in one piece.
“You do realize there will be no computer assist on this landing,” Elvin said.
“Yeah, I know,” I said as we closed the gap between us and the Explorer. “Computers are way overrated.”
“Hey!” SC said.
“Nothing personal, SC,” I said as we closed in on the Explorer.
Phew. There wasn’t a lot of space. I was coming in a bit high. Normally there’s no problem coming in a little high but this time there was no room for error. I lowered my ship’s nose, then leveled her out. I held my breath (as I’m sure my crew as doing too).
The shuttle’s nose entered the Explorer. So far so good. The body of the shuttle cleared the door; there were no explosions and no sparks. That was a good sign. We were in the landing bay. Since gravity was at 75 percent, the landing brakes should work just fine. I hoped.
I pressed the brake button. The shuttle slowed, but not as much as I thought it should have. We slid over my landing mark toward the far wall. The shuttle was slowly slowing down. The shuttle was going to stop. The question was, was it going to stop before it hit the wall?
We skidded across the floor.
“SC, are we going to stop?” I asked.
“Before we hit the wall?” SC asked, not being helpful.
“Preferably…” GiS said.
“The odds are good,” SC said, slowly. “Three to one for.”
“I agree, “ Elvin said.
Those odds weren’t good enough for me. The landing bay was empty so I had room to maneuver, so I figured I might as well use it. I pulled the control stick hard to the left, reversing the shuttle’s direction. The shuttle jerked as it went to the left, but the movement not only gave us more room to move but it also slowed us down.
The shuttle rolled for a few hundred meters then came to a stop. Not the best landing. But it worked.
I looked at my crew. “Are you alright?”
Elvin and Zenna nodded.
“We’re fine,” GiS said. “Though the landing could have been smoother!”
“I thought you did a really good job, Baxter,” Zenna said.
We all unharnessed and stood up. I stretched a bit. GiS walked over to one of the shuttle’s side panels. He pressed a few buttons with his feet. The side panel popped open. He pulled out five long rods — stun rods.
“Since we don’t know what we’re getting into I want us to at least be able to defend ourselves,” GiS said.
He walked up to Zenna and handed her a stun energy rod.
“Thanks,” she said.
He walked up to Elvin and handed him a rod. Elvin hesitated.
“I thought we weren’t supposed to have weapons?”
“We can’t have
lethal
weapons. These energy rods are locked on stun so they are only lethal to machines,” GiS said.
Elvin smiled weakly. He opened his hand. GiS gave him a stun rod.
GiS tossed me a rod. I must have looked too eager as I caught it.
“Remember these are for emergency use only,” GiS cautioned.
“Don’t worry about me,” I said as I walked toward the shuttle’s door.