The red lights in the bay area started to flash. A warning horn sounded. (This whole place was big on lights and sirens.) These meant the big bay doors were going to open in thirty seconds. It was time for all personnel to clear the surface. If you weren’t in a shuttle, you shouldn’t be there.
“The surface is clear,” SC-711 said.
The big bay door our shuttle was facing slowly started to roll open. It only took maybe ten minutes, but it seemed like ten hours. There, lying before us was an infinite collection of stars. They were all calling my name. But for now I had to concentrate on the mission at hand.
“We are cleared for go,” SC-711 said.
I looked at GiS. He nodded his head.
“Starting engine,” I said.
I pressed the engine ignite button on the top left control panel. The shuttle’s engine roared to life.
“Starting liftoff power,” I said. I pressed the ignite button again.
We rose ever so slightly off the landing pad.
“Switching to forward power,” I said. I moved my index finger and pressed the yellow accelerator button located right next to the start button. I pressed it gently. We wanted to ease out. Nice and slow.
The shuttle started to move forward toward the open door. My job here was simple, just to keep the shuttle straight.
“Easy, easy,” GiS said nervously. “Don’t be nervous,” he said.
“No problem,” I said as we glided closer and closer to the freedom of space.
“Don’t be nervous,” GiS repeated.
“I won’t be nervous as long as you don’t keep saying don’t be nervous,” I said.
GiS just looked at me with a raised eyebrow. It was a look only a chimp could give. I was sure he wanted to say, “It’s my job to say that,” but he fought the urge.
“You’re doing fine,” he said. “Just don’t get cocky.”
I steered the shuttle through the door. We were in space! The final frontier. (Even though oceanographers like to call the ocean the final frontier. But they’re just jealous. After all space is infinite; oceans aren’t.)
“Nice job,” GiS said. “Now, stay focused.”
I pressed the accelerate button in a bit more. We pulled away from the station. The station appeared on our rear view screen. As it was growing smaller and smaller I was pretty certain the smile on my face was growing wider and wider.
“Don’t put it to near hyper-speed until we’re 300 kilometers from the station.” GiS said, though he knew I knew that.
“Don’t worry,” I said.
“It’s one of my jobs to worry,” he said.
“Then don’t worry so much,” I said.
He nodded. “I will do my best,” he said. “Though it’s not easy.”
I peered out the side window. When possible, I preferred to use the windows instead of the view screens. The windows just seemed more natural. Kymm and her shuttle were running right beside us. She blew me a little mock kiss, at least she wanted to believe it was a mock. Yep, she liked me alright. At least I think she liked me. Maybe her mock kiss really was just a mock kiss?
“Keep your eyes and brain in the game,” GiS coached.
I blocked Kymm from my mind for now. We had a mission. I needed to focus all my attention on that, for now.
“We are now 300 K from the station,” Elvin said. “The course is plotted. We can now safely go to near hyper-speed.”
I looked over at GiS. He nodded his approval. I pressed the accelerator button to launch us into near hyper-speed, NHS for short. The stars before us suddenly blurred into streaks of bright light that seemed to be coming toward us. They weren’t, of course. We were actually zooming toward them at a speed that wasn’t light speed but was pretty darn close. I pitched the ship a couple degrees to the right as we rocketed forward. I fought back the urge to yell whoopee! I was on a mission. Not just any mission, but one with the fate of two worlds at stake. No pressure there.
If I said I wasn’t totally elated piloting my shuttle through space I would be lying through my teeth. This was without a doubt the greatest moment of my life. Not only was I racing toward the stars, but I was on a mission — a real mission. I knew my face must have been one giant grin.
“Enjoying yourself, Scout?” GiS asked.
Something told me that there was no right answer to that question. My best shot was to come up with something that wouldn’t upset GiS, but I wasn’t sure that was possible.
“I have great anticipation,” was all I said.
I adjusted the shuttle’s control stick just a hair. I didn’t really need to. With the computer course laid in, my only job as pilot was to keep us on course. I just wanted to look busy in the hopes that GiS wouldn’t continue this line of questioning.
“Hey, why did you change the pitch .05 degrees?” Elvin asked, definitely not helping me out here. “That will slow our arrival down by five tics!”
“Yes, Baxter why did you do that?” GiS asked. I didn’t take my eyes off the view screen, but I knew he had one eyebrow raised.
“Instinct,” I said. “This course just feels better.”
GiS just shook his head. “When on a pre-laid course, proper pilot procedural protocol is to simply follow the computer’s lead and keep the ship steady.”
I knew GiS was going to come back at me with proper pilot procedural protocol, or p-cubed as we young pilots called it. P-cubed was just an overly fancy way of saying let the computer do it. My guess was that if whoever it was that made up these rules could figure out a way to do this without humans, they would. The thing is, as good as computers are when it comes to repetitive processes, when things get dicey and the poop hits the solar-powered fan, computers still don’t act as well as the best humans.
We have something they still haven’t figured out how to program into computers. To be polite, I call it instinct but it’s really something more. It’s having the guts to do something that seems ridiculous but you know it’s not. It’s reacting to the problem that you know is going to follow the current problem. It’s almost a sixth sense — a way of reacting out of the ordinary to something out of the ordinary. Whatever it is, it’s something scientists haven’t learned to break down into a mathematical formula, at least not yet. So for now there are still some things we do better than machines.
I didn’t bother to look over at GiS but I knew he was shaking his head.
“Baxter,” he said, surprisingly calmly, “you
do
have incredible reactions, it’s a gift that not many have.”
“Thanks,” I said, taking whatever I could get.
“But…” GiS said.
With GiS there is always a but. In this case I knew it was going to be a big but.
“But,” he repeated, “you have to learn the appropriate time to use that gift. You need to know when to act and when not to act.”
“The adjustment just felt right,” I said.
“Searcher 0.5 is coming into view now,” Zenna announced, saving me from having to go any further with the conversation with GiS.
Sure enough, there on the screen growing larger and larger by the tic was Searcher 0.5; a giant, reflective metal sphere that could move people and equipment faster than light. It was an impressive sight and an impressive technological achievement. It wasn’t as big as a space station, but it could still hold a dozen ships and a crew of up to two hundred organics, non-organics and mixes.
“We’ll talk about this later,” GiS said.
Not if I could help it, we wouldn’t.
“Slow to approach speed,” GiS ordered.
“Right,” I said in my most business-like voice.
Elvin made a few adjustments at his panel. “I have the course laid in,” he said.
“Just follow the computer’s prompts,” GiS reminded me.
Before I could acknowledge, Kymm’s voice came over our intercom.
“Ah, New Houston, we have a problem,” she said cautiously. I could tell she was scared but trying hard not to sound it.
“Why is she talking to Houston?” Zenna asked, not surprisingly not getting the reference.
“What’s up, Kymm?” I asked, over the ship to ship intercom.
“Uh, we can’t slow our ship down or change its course,” she said. “The computer systems aren’t responding!” “What gives, SC-711?”
“It’s not SC,” Kymm said over the intercom. Though I couldn’t see her, I could hear the sweat in her voice. She was struggling with all her might to slow her ship down.
“While I am acting as the master computer for the shuttles, each shuttle has 1,032 other computers onboard that dictate other functions. For instance there is a …”
“You’re taking too much time here, SC!” I interrupted. “I don’t need the whole story, just the main plot!”
Like I said earlier, there are some things computers just don’t get. At least not yet. I’m not sure if they ever will. That’s why I’m glad I don’t have any chips wired into me.
“The other computers are ignoring my commands,” SC said quickly.
“Well, that’s not good,” Elvin said.
For a bright guy Elvin had a way of stating the obvious.
“If I don’t slow down or gain some control soon, I’m going to crash into Searcher! Nothing can help me land at this speed,” Kymm said, as calmly as she could, considering the situation. She was good, I had to give her that.
“Can you move Searcher out of the way?” I asked SC.
“Yes,” SC answered.
“Then do it!” I said.
“I can do it,” SC said slowly. “Only with Searcher locked in orbit and prepared to accept boarding ships, it will take five minutes for me to move it.”
“Why didn’t you tell me that sooner?” I asked.
“You didn’t ask,” SC said.
“We don’t have five minutes,” I said.
“Hence the reason I never mentioned it,” SC said.
“SC, what’s the standard procedure for dealing with an out of control ship?” GiS asked, scratching his head with one hand and his butt with the other.
“We would be forced to use Searcher’s laser cannons to destroy the offending ship,” SC paused for a tic. “Of course the cannons are off line and would take five minutes to activate.”
“Doesn’t matter,” I said. “I don’t like that option anyhow.”
“It doesn’t matter if you like it or not,” SC said coldly. “There is nothing I can do with either Searcher 0.5 or Shuttle K-II to keep the two from colliding.”
“The crash will be devastating!” Elvin said, once again feeling obligated to point out the obvious.
“Yes,” SC agreed. “At their speed and angle of approach, I estimate there is a 57.325 percent chance of the impending explosion also destroying the Searcher 0.5.”
“Really?” Elvin said. “I estimate there is a 57.322 percent chance of them destroying the Searcher.”
“Hmmm,” SC said. “Perhaps you did not properly take into account mass of the ship now that Chriz and Lobi have each put on an additional kilo?”
“Missing the big picture here!” I shouted.
Elvin glared at me. “It’s my job to track every little detail!”
“Track,” I said. Something about that word sparked a chain reaction in my mind.
I thought for a tic more. “Elvin, you’re brilliant.”
“I know that,” he said confidently, even though he had no idea where I was going with this. “Why do you know that?”
I turned to Zenna. “Zen, give me tractor beams, full power!”
“Right!” she said excitedly. She knew where I was going with this.
So did GiS.
“Baxter you can’t grab a shuttle moving at a near light speed with a tractor beam! It’s a nearly impossible shot.”
“Not impossible, but nearly a million to one,” Elvin corrected.
“They just need to cut their engines,” I said.
“Baxter, I know you like to sleep in physics class, but even Zenna knows even if they cut their engines they wouldn’t just stop! The centrifugal force would still carry them forward.”
Zenna nodded. “Yep, even I know that,” she said proudly.
“Yes, but they will slow down!” I said.
Kymm and her crew had been listening to our conversation. “I hope you know what you’re doing, Moon,” she said. “Okay, I’m going to emergency manual override now. I’ve cut the power.”
Elvin looked at his console. “They have slowed down .05 percent.”
“That’s a start,” I said.
“Okay, SC, give me control of the ship now,” I said.
“If you insist,” SC said.
GiS looked at me. He looked at the view screen with the Searcher growing larger and larger by the tic. He looked back at me. “Baxter, even if this works, you’ll never stop it in time,” he said. “They’ll just pull us crashing into the Searcher also.”
I hated to admit it but GiS was right. I couldn’t stop the shuttles. But luckily I didn’t have to stop them, at least not yet. I just had to nudge them past Searcher, then stop them.
“How long until impact?”
“Two minutes and thirty seconds,” Elvin and Lobi both said.
“Plenty of time!”
I turned to Zenna. She was one step ahead of me. She was already under her console making the needed adjustments.
“One electronic pool cue coming up,” she said.
“What are you guys talking about?” Kymm asked over the intercom.
“I’m going to use the tractor beam as a pool stick and I’m going to bounce you guys over the Searcher, then I’ll catch you and tow you back in.”
There was dead silence from the other ship.
“This is doable,” I said.
We heard a big sigh over the intercom.
“I can do this,” I said.
“I’ve seen you play pool,” Kymm said.
“Trust me,” I said.
“It’s ready!” Zenna shouted.
“Trust me,” I repeated.
“Do I have any choice?” Kymm said.
I was determined to let my actions be my answer. “Give me a laser sighting,” I said.
An electronic circle appeared on the view screen.
“Do you wish me to take the shot?” SC said in his calm computer voice.
“No,” I said firmly. We had had enough problems with computers these last two days. If this was going to work I was going to have to do it myself. “I’ll use the left control stick as tractor control.”
I was surprised that GiS didn’t complain or make any suggestions. It was out of character for him. I figured he either trusted me or had absolutely no faith that this idea would work.
“Slow to impulse power,” I ordered.
“Check,” Elvin said.