“Okay, animals too,” said Ajax.
“I think you've got something there Ajax, let us brainstorm for a bit and we will get back to you,” said Ruth.
At that they blinked out, disconcerting Ajax.
I think of them as so real sometimes. Real people that can blink in and out of existence that is.
He shrugged, got up and left the room.
Ajax had just reached his apartment when he got a call on his Annie.
“Hi Ajax, I've got some news,” said Lindsey.
“What's that?” said Ajax somewhat reluctantly.
“We are going to have another mouth to feed.”
“Lindsey, I'm tired, please be specific.”
“Joyce Ramos, a biologist in agriculture. She's going to have a baby. About seven months from now.”
“You're kidding. So much for the importance of waiting.” He paused. “Still I'm kind of excited.”
“Me too.”
“Okay, we don't want to make to much out of this but see that the mother and father are well taken care of will you sis?”
“Of course brother.”
Ajax was at dinner in the cafeteria with Lindsey when he felt the ship shudder. Immediately afterward the ship-wide alarm went off.
“Come on Lindsey, let's get to control.”
Ajax unfolded his Annie and called ahead.
“Horace,” he said as the screen came up. “What is the alarm about.”
“We've sustained a hit on the aft sail. The projectile came in at an angle and took quite a gash out of the sail and supporting structure. Sail-bots will soon have more information.”
“Okay, I'll be there in a moment.” Ajax folded his Annie.
Upon entering control Ajax saw that Horace had the aft sail up on the wall screen. The brilliance of the reflected light had been dimmed by the screen. Then Ajax saw the tear, from near the rim on one side almost to the center. A black gash meters wide if not more.
“We've lost ten percent of the sail,” said Horace. “Our rate of deceleration has slowed.”
“Alright,” said Ajax. “Horace I want you, Arn, Lindsey and the volunteers in the conference room immediately.” He then said to Winston just entering the room, “Follow me.”
The conference table seating was filled to capacity.
“Horace a report for everyone please,” said Ajax.
“Okay, what we know now is that we have lost at least ten percent of the aft sail. The gash in the sail is growing but the sail-bots are trying to adapt. We hope to hold the loss of sail to just a few percent more.”
“Basically,” said Arn. “The sail-bots are fighting a delaying action, kind of like you do with a forest fire. They are back from the gash somewhat and trying to reinforce the sail material so that when the gash reaches them the sail will hold.”
“Okay Horace, once we stabilize the sail how do we repair such a huge tear,” asked Ajax.
“There isn't enough sail material in inventory to repair that large a gash. We could get the printers in storage to print more but that requires getting them out and setting them up. Could take a day or two or a week depending on the crew's response.”
“The crew's response?” asked Ajax.
“Yeah, you know the way they've been acting lately, who knows how they will react to this situation.”
“Well let's assume we respond well and get the gash sewed up in a couple of days. Can one of you volunteers address how that affects the mission?”
“Probably minimally if we get things buttoned up in a couple of days,” said Rachael. “A little more severe if it takes a week but still manageable.”
“Okay Horace, you and Arn get started on the printers, take Winston with you, he's a whiz at programming those things. I'll talk to the crew.”
An all ship's alert was announced by the communications officer and Ajax began to speak.
“Attention Starway Centauri crew. Most of you know the recent event, for those that do not I will just say that the aft sail, the sail we need to decelerate, has been hit by an object. A gash has appeared across the sail from the rim to the center and is growing. The sail-bots are working now to limit the extent of the gash. This is limiting the rate of deceleration we are experiencing.
“There is no immediate danger to the ship or the mission but we need to fix the sail as soon as possible. To that end it has been proposed to use the printers in storage to create enough sail material to fill the gap.
“I need those with experience setting up these machines to report to storage immediately and assist Horace Mann and Arn Strombecker in that setup. For those trained in managing the printer's feedstock please check with Horace and make that available as soon as possible. I need the rest of the crew to cover for those that are directly involved in producing the sail material until this emergency is behind us.
“That is all, and thank you.”
As Ajax was leaving the conference room Lindsey said, “Very impressive brother.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean that was a very authoritative talk.”
“Just doing what I had to.”
“Yeah, that's what leaders do,” said Lindsey smiling.
17
The crew had responded well to Ajax's call to duty. The printers were set up overnight with the crew working around the clock. Winston had them programmed and the feedstocks were added and they began producing sail material. It all had taken less than twenty-four hours. Horace was impressed, Ajax was pleased.
“The sail-bots will take this meter square material and sew it into a seamless sail,” said Horace. “I expect that with all of them working on the repair they can be finished within forty-eight hours.”
“And how will that affect the mission?” asked Ajax.
“Almost no effect at all.”
Two days later in the control room, Ajax and the others were waiting for the sail-bots to finish.
“They should be finished anytime now,” said Arn. “We'll notice the increase in deceleration shortly.”
“There it is,” said one of the crew pointing to the accelerometer.
The display showed an increasing rate of deceleration.
There was an outburst of applause with everyone congratulating each other. Just as the tension in the room was dissipating the crewman pointed to the display again.
“The rate is decreasing again.”
Everyone was looking at the display again except Lindsey.
“Uh-oh,” she said pointing to the wall screen.
They all turned in time to see the place where the gash in the sail was opening up again. But this time instead of stopping at the original tear it continued to expand.
“What's happening?” asked Lindsey.
No one spoke, they only watched as the tear spread faster and faster. What seemed like an hour only took a few minutes as the sail disintegrated. The accelerometer dropped to zero.
Everyone grasped at something to prevent floating away.
“What's our speed?” asked Horace.
“Zero-point five-eight-six speed of light and steady,” said the crewman.
“Too fast, much too fast.”
“What do you mean Horace?” asked Lindsey.
“He means,” said Ajax. “That even if we fire the fusion rocket immediately at full thrust we can't slow down in time to rendezvous in the Centauri System. We will overshoot by a large amount and then our fuel will run out.
“Okay, first things first, let's get the wheel rotating so we have some gravity. Horace make the announcement, let's get the wheel going as soon as possible.”
“How could this happen?” asked one of the crewmen.
Preparation for rotation had not gone well. It was almost impossible to ready the rooms for spin up in zero gravity. Spin up caused many incidents and minor injuries. But at least the system worked and a gravity of four-tenths of Earth gravity was restored.
“Sabotage,” said Horace. “It couldn't have been anything e
lse.”
They were again sitting around the table in the conference room.
“We can't be sure of that,” said Arn.
“We will soon be,” said Horace. “I have some of that material we ran off the printers and the lab guys are inspecting it now.”
“More sabotage,” said Lindsey. “Why is someone dead set against this mission?”
“Let me count the ways,” began Ajax. “Could be someone the Corporation has upset either since we took over or before; could be someone that doesn't like the Solar Federation since we are associated with them; could be someone who doesn't want the 'human pestilence' to spread beyond Earth; in other words anyone.
“But what worries me most is that we could have that person aboard this ship right now. This couldn't have been pre-planned, they are taking advantage of this emergency in real-time.”
“And now that they've done it once, they could do it again,” said Lindsey.
“They've done it more than once,” said Ajax. “Remember all the problems with the test flights. But yes, when we solve this problem they could throw more monkey wrenches at us.
“Charles, do you think that you, Rachael and Ruth can come up with a way for us to rendezvous in the Centauri System with the resources we have left?”
“Of course Ajax.”
“Horace when we get out of this mess we've got to find this person before they strike again.”
18
“Winston I would like for you to work with the volunteers on the rendezvous problem,” said Ajax.
“Of course sir,” said Winston.
Winston turned and left the room.
“So you think the volunteers will be able to figure it out Horace?” said Ajax.
“I think they have the capabilities to figure it out, yes.”
A day later Ajax entered the conference room to meet with the volunteers. In the chair in the corner sat Winston, an inoperative Winston.
Ajax walked up to Winston and turned to face the volunteers. “What happened?”
“Winston is between states,” said Charles. “We will be downloading his original setup once we have separated it from the AI.”
“The AI?”
“Yes Winston has been harboring the sensory inputs and communication outputs for an Aggie.”
“An Aggie!” said Ajax alarmed.
“Yes Ajax, the reasoning, calculating part of the Aggie was being run on the central computer. Winston served as an interface for the AI to the physical world.”
“How long?”
“Since before the incident with the aft sail. As a matter of fact, the Aggie was responsible for the incident.”
“Where is this Aggie now?”
“Ruth and Rachael are keeping it occupied. We have it sandboxed, isolated from the rest of the computer systems. It shouldn't cause us any more problems.”
“Okay,” said Ajax. “My question is how did it get aboard, how did it get installed in the computer system?”
“We believe that the AI could have been downloaded through the communications system. We also believe that the only way that it could have been installed and activated is by someone on board the ship, someone with the requisite technical know-how.”
“Do you know who that someone is?”
“We believe that only four people on this ship have the necessary skills and the security clearance to pull it off. Those four are Horace Mann, Arn Strombecker, Alex Poro and yourself.”
“That's quite a list, every one of the others is important to this mission and Horace and Arn have been with me from the beginning. Okay, how about Winston?”
“Just a moment,” said Charles.
Winston rose from the chair and looked at Ajax.
“You okay Winston?” asked Ajax.
“Yes sir, I believe so. Although I have a blank in my memory of time. I sense a slight Coriolis force. The wheel has been spun up?”
“Yes Winston it has and I will tell you all about it,” said Ajax smiling.
“Goodbye Charles,” said Ajax.
“Goodbye sir,” said Winston.
Winston followed Ajax from the room.
19
“Okay,” said Horace. “This is the rendezvous plan the volunteers came up with. And by the way, I agree with it. We have already begun to fire the fusion rocket as all of you know from the wheel spin down and room rotation we had to go through again. We do not however, have enough thrust to shed the rest of our velocity before we reach binary stars Centauri A/B so we are going to have to redeploy the sail in some manner.
“Now the volunteers calculate that we have enough feedstock to create the material to complete the sail to an area that will contribute enough to our deceleration so that we can swing around Centauri A and B into a large elliptical orbit around both. We can then begin by carefully orchestrated rocket burns to eventually circularize an orbit around Centauri A at the distance we want to build the beam lasers. It shouldn't add more than two to three months to our travel time.
“Well,” said Ajax. “It's not what I would like to hear but at least the mission can continue. If no one has any objections?” He paused a moment. “Radio our change in plans to Corporate and implement Horace.”
“It's him,” said James Wilson, Head of Security. “He has the means and the access to cause the reprogramming of Winston. But the most damning evidence is his background which can be traced back to the incident at settlement thirteen-ninety-five. An ancestor of his lost his life when the corporate cruiser of then Star-Way Corporation attacked the rogue settlement during the incident. Although the Star-Way Corporation settled with the man's family, funds that were wasted by the family, no doubt there were bad feelings leftover and I think still existent in our suspect.”
“But Alex Poro,” said Horace. “I mean I can see how he would have the expertise but I've never thought about him being dangerous.”
“Don't you remember Horace when we were deciding on sending the Ems on the test flight or putting human pilots aboard, Alex was adamant that the Ems could make the flight. And of course the Ems failed.”
“That's not enough to accuse him Ajax.”
“I know but remember how adamant he was about bringing volunteers aboard the ship rather than AIs? His objection was the computer resources required but you pointed out yourself that the resources wouldn't be prohibitive and he still objected. The attitude he displayed that day has always stuck in my mind.”
“Well maybe there is some reason to suspect him.”
“I think so, what do you suggest now James?”
“I would suggest sir that we maintain a constant surveillance on Mr. Poro. We should also monitor any off-ship communications he wishes to make. I need your approval as the leader of this mission to implement my recommendations.”
“You have it,” said Ajax.
Alex Poro hadn't done exactly as Kenyon Chavis had wanted. Chavis had wanted the AI unleashed much earlier in the mission while the Terran Federation still had a chance to intervene and make an impact. But Poro had waited, waited for what he believed would be the moment of maximum damage The object striking the sail had provided the moment and the sabotage had almost worked too.
But now Alex Poro was on the run which wasn't easy aboard a cramped starship. He had taken the precaution to turn off all his electronic devices. He had even disabled his augmentations which felt quite disorienting but he couldn't take a chance that they could trace him through that interface. He was working his way to the outside ring and an escape pod. He absolutely would not allow them to catch him. He had planned his revenge for too many years.
“There he is,” shouted one of the security team. “He's on the access ladder to the outer ring.”
The four-man team split up. Two made for the access ladder and two made for the elevator shaft.
Alex was aware that the men were right behind him, he had been aware for some time now that he was under surveillance. But he was close to his goal and wouldn't stop now. He w
as at the top of the ladder and on the outer ring's floor even before the men in the elevator arrived.
He had mapped his path before he began and went straight to the pod. He had even simulated flying the pod on his Annie. He was ready to finish this mission now.
The pod hatch slid open, Alex climbed in. He hurriedly hit the eject lever before even strapping himself in. The rapid acceleration of the pod caused him to hit his head against the hatch which accelerated to meet the unstrapped occupant.
Alex was momentarily stunned.
Eventually, he was able to shake himself into consciousness. He seated himself at the flight controls and strapped in. Due to his momentary lapse, the pod was farther from the ship than he had planned but it should still have the fuel to maneuver where he wanted to go.
He turned the pod with the attitude jets. He boosted the main rockets and felt the push of the seat on his back. He headed for the rear of the spaceship which was traveling rocket forward for the deceleration phase. Alex knew that the back of the ship, like the front, besides a powerful magnetic field to sweep aside charged particles was also heavily plated for protection against solid uncharged projectile collisions. The only break in this barrier at the rear was the framework of the magnetic rocket nozzles themselves. This wasn't a problem since the fusion exhaust could easily burn up any space debris below a certain size and the ship could be maneuvered to avoid any larger debris.
But there was an angle at the side of the nozzles where an object could approach without being caught in the fusion exhaust or magnetic field. Alex had every intention of hitting that angle and damaging the nozzles even though it would probably mean his death.
He maneuvered his pod around the ship and came in at an angle. He was just about on course when he felt himself begin to lose consciousness. He fought it off but the moments lost were critical. The pod missed the proper angle and was drifting across the magnetic field lines straight into the fusion exhaust.
Alex thought of his mom and dad.
At several thousand degrees Kelvin, the exhaust plasma quickly vaporized the pod with only a momentary drop in ship's thrust.
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