Acarea. A Triumph or Disaster? (SpaceFed StarShips Series Book 5): A Novel by Gerry A. Saunders (SpaceFed StarShips Trilogy)

by Gerry A. Saunders

  A medical droid came over and whistled at Traven.

  “Do you know what happened yet?” he asked Merance while entirely ignoring the droid.

  “We’re not sure. It looks like a computer glitch rather than a design fault.

  The boy had slowly withered away, almost to a skeleton. Really, John, it was nasty and depressing.”

  “Where’s Trisha now?” He asked, his voice improving in strength as he spoke.

  “We’re counselling her right now… The crew member in the chamber next to her seems to be taking it better. I believe he’s named Jeff. Though there’s some contradiction in our records about their status?”

  “He’s her husband.”

  “Oh, I thought Trisha was married to Joe?”

  “Yes, Peter. It’s a long story. I’ll tell you about it later. It was certainly a very eventful first leg,” he said, then stopped to get his breath

  “Is that differential-age clock correct?”

  “Absolutely John. All of you are about twenty months older.”

  “Slightly less than we expected. Not a bad trade-off for forty years in stasis.”

  A whistle and pop sounded behind them as the medical droid showed its annoyance at having to wait so long for Traven to follow it.

  “I’d better go and get my medical checks over now, Peter. Chummy here is getting annoyed with me.”

  “OK. Don’t forget that there’s a briefing in the control room, in two hours.”

  “Right. See you then Peter.” John replied, then turned and followed the medical droid, albeit slowly.

  The meeting started on time, after Captain John Traven’s men had passed their Medical and Nutritional checks and finished their stasis Detox.

  All of them had pretty much recovered by now, and most of them were quite animated.

  Trisha, however, seemed understandably withdrawn, but nevertheless, was paying attention.

  “Right John, We’ve been preparing for months for this moment,” Peter said. “And we’ve decided to go into stasis as soon as you and your men are comfortable with the changeover details.”

  “Right. So, are we sure that we’ve got all the information we need?” Traven asked his team.

  They all looked at each other and then nodded at Henry.

  “Everything checks out,” he assured him. There’s plenty of food and sufficient fuel for the thrusters.”

  “Peter, do any of your men have any questions for us?”

  No one did.

  “Are you still intending to keep all of the settlers in stasis until you’ve got things going on the ground?” Peter Merance queried.

  “We have to, Peter. We won’t be able to produce enough food to sustain that many people straight away.”

  “Understood. You will wake us up just before landing, won’t you? That’s not changed, has it?” Peter asked, sounding a bit apprehensive.

  “Don’t worry. If we survive the slowdown, and it’s safe to do so, then yes.” John replied, and then thought about the possible scenarios for a moment.

  “Though I’ll have to judge the viability of having extra crew active at what will be a critical time.”

  “Fair enough. There aren’t enough anti-inertia seats for one thing, so I have to agree with you on that.”

  “Yes, but we’ve got another ten years to look into it. We may be able to work something out,” John finished.

  “OK, that’s good enough, for me,” Peter replied.

  They were all quiet for a while, thinking about what was to come.

  “Anyway, it wouldn’t be my idea of fun, virtually sitting on top of the nuclear bombs, as they go off,” Peter said, trying to joke.

  “Especially with the plasma streaming past you,” he added.

  This then reminded John’s crew of what it had been like when they set off fifty years ago.

  “You’d better believe me, Peter. I can assure you it’ll be a nightmare. It wasn’t any fun starting out, with the detonation behind us. Let alone the thought of having to go backwards through the blasts this time.”

  “The pusher plate should protect you,” one of Peter’s men assured him.

  “I’m sure it will,” Traven agreed “As for all of you, ten years of sleep, and oblivious to everything. That can’t be bad.”

  “True, John. Right. That’s everything, we’ll go and prepare ourselves for stasis now.”

  Right, we’ll follow on.”

  With that, Peter and his crew left the control room, placed the rest of their belongings into their storage lockers. Then went off to the stasis section, where the newly vacated and fully serviced stasis chambers were located.

  Trisha’s had already been reconfigured for single occupancy. The work having carried out by both Tony and Peter’s stasis engineers. As they entered, they saw the double line of stasis chambers with lids open, and beds set in the vertical mode.

  A few minutes later John Traven and his crew also arrived. Then everyone shook hands. After which Peter’s team were helped into the chambers, each of the men standing upright, with their backs against their beds.

  “Lay back gents,” Tony instructed as their beds started to slowly drop backwards. Moments later, they were flat with their bodies held down by two small suction discs. Then Tony’s team administered the stasis injections, and, within seconds, Peter and his crew were all asleep.

  Tony then checked the chambers, one by one. Once satisfied, he tapped his special code in on each unit’s control panel, and the cover slowly closed, followed by a hiss that lasted just a few seconds.

  As he worked his way along a green dot lit on each of the chamber’s control panels, indicating successful initiation

  The covers then misted over as the stasis fields became active. Then a second green dot lit on the panels.

  Finally, the digital clock on each panel illuminated showing the occupant’s name and activation time, together with the current date.

  “Everything’s Ok. We’re done, Captain.” Tony finally said, smiling with relief.

  “Okay. Well, I know we’ve been dormant for forty years, but, let’s relax and get something to eat. We need to restore our energy.”

  “Can’t disagree with you there,” Steven agreed.

  Seeing Trisha trailing behind, as the others went off to reclaim their original cabins. John dropped back to walk with her.

  “Maybe it’s a silly question, Trisha. But are you and Jeff going to be able to cope?”

  She stared at him with sad looking eyes as they walked along. “I don’t know. Do you think we should try again, Captain?”

  He gave her question some thought while noting that she had used his official rank

  “Well…Yes, I think you should, Trisha… It would be nice to arrive with one newcomer.”

  At hearing this, she became more animated. “Captain, I think perhaps you and I will. But, later,” she told him, grinning as she said it.

  “After all, I’ve still got nine years left to have fun,” she added, sounding excited.

  He felt his face blush as she winked at him. “Then you’d better have your fun earlier rather than later,” he answered. Hoping to keep that happy look on her face longer.

  She stopped in front of him and took his hand. He was suddenly uneasy, not sure of where this was going.

  “Err…What I meant was, in eight years we’ll be rotating to start the slow-down…,” he added.

  Then realising what she had just said to him, asked. “What do you mean, you and I will?”

  “Exactly what I said. That means I've still plenty of time to have fun if I want,” she replied, sounding a bit hyperactive.

  He, shrugged, thinking it was just foolish chatter and assumed that she was putting on a brave face, and would soon return to being herself again.

  Then she squeezed his hand and moved close up to him.

  He couldn’t help it. He hadn’t been this close to Trisha since, well, ever.

  He felt an attraction to her, and his body
reacted to her closeness. At least, my things are still working, he thought to himself. Then felt her body pushing hard against his.

  He started to say something. But couldn’t, as she swiftly changed tactics and put her hand down in front of her body, which was pressed against his.

  Then he felt her putting her hand on his erection through the material of his pants. He couldn’t move, no that wasn’t right. He didn’t want to.

  Then she manoeuvred until she managed to hold it tight in her hand. Imagining as she did so that she could feel the throb of hot blood pulsing through its veins.

  She remembered the thrill of the first time that Jeff had entered her and yearned to experience that feeling again.

  She looked playfully into his eyes. Grinning. Suddenly, she pulled it as hard as she could.

  “Ouch!” He yelled, almost screaming with pain. While loving it, and wanting more.

  Then, suddenly, she let go, turned and walked on.

  “Bitch,” he growled after her.

  “I’ll have you very soon, John Traven, you see if I don’t.”

  “Bloody hell, she’s worse than she was before,” he said to himself.

  Then checked to see if he still had the same number of bits that he had had, when he’d come out of stasis.

  Chapter 23

  Strategy Meeting

  2159

  They were now fifty years out from Earth, and approximately, 3.3 light years from Delta Pavonis.

  The following day and twenty-one hours after emerging from stasis, Captain Traven’s crew began familiarising themselves again with their own areas of responsibility.

  Once that had been done, the crew knew that they would have little to do with the general running of the ship as the Acarea was travelling on automatic. Meaning, they would have more leisure time than usual, and would be obliged to find other things to do to pass the time.

  Traven had been thinking about what Trisha had done to him. He was sure that Trisha’s actions had just been a result of her grief and emotional turmoil over the loss of her son but he didn't know how well Jeff would be able to cope with her behaviour.

  On reflection, decided that he would say nothing to anyone about her weird behaviour towards him.

  Having made this decision, he put the matter to one side and got back to the business in hand.

  At 11:00 hours, he put out a general call.

  “Progress meeting. In the control room. 17:00 hours,” he ordered. Knowing this would give them plenty of time to collect sufficient information to make the meeting productive.

  He then called Tony Mears, who in addition to his position as the chief stasis engineer was also the ship’s doctor.

  “Tony, when are you having the burial for Trisha’s son?”

  “Captain, I thought you knew. Trisha’s already shot him out into space.”

  “What?”

  Traven was flabbergasted.

  “I saw the recording. Seems a bit hard to me, but she did, at least, say a pray for the little mite.”

  “Did Jeff join her?”

  “No, just her and a medical droid.”

  “Can you keep an eye on her, please?” Traven asked while thinking the whole thing could blow up at this rate.

  “Will do.”

  “Jeff seems to be out of his depth with her. What do you think?”

  “To be honest. I don’t think there’s anything left between them.”

  “What makes you say that?” he asked, feeling guilty about what had gone on between him and Trisha.

  “Well, they don’t seem to talk much to each other now, and I know they didn’t sleep together last night.”

  “Do you think she blames him for the boy’s death?”

  “I don’t see why, but maybe so, Captain… Anyway, she seems to have withdrawn into herself.”

  H’mm, you wouldn’t have believed that yesterday, Traven thought to himself.

  “Perhaps you could let me know if she changes,” he said. “You know what I mean, Tony. If she gets moody or acts strangely.”

  “Of course…, and I’ll programme a medical droid to carry out checks on them both, from time to time.”

  “Thanks, Tony,” he replied, and then ended the contact.

  At 17:00 hours, the progress meeting started. But without Trisha, who had failed to arrive.

  “Trisha may join us later,” Traven informed them, not wanting to draw too much attention to her absence.

  “OK. Paul, Tommy. Set everything up,” he ordered.

  Within five minutes, Paul Jansen of Astro and Tommy Waters, Acarea’s pilot, had the tracking telescope’s live pictures of Delta Pavonis showing on the main screen.

  The image of the Delta Pavonis star system showed in the centre of Traven’s screen. With its five planets clearly visible as the ship orbited the Star.

  “Paul, go through what we have so far on Pavonis.”

  “Ok, Captain. The five planets have been provisionally analysed for colonisation. We’ll get better pictures when we start using the large reflector telescope,” he told them. Paused a moment, then continued.

  “Planet four seems to be our best option. Planet five, as you can see, does not meet our needs. Though, having said that it may have mineral deposits that we could mine in the future. While the other three planets are obviously outside the habitable zone.”

  “So planet four is definitely the one for us,” Joe said, stating the obvious.

  “Yes,” Tommy interjected. “Planet four has to be our target.”

  “Right,” Paul said. Then continued. “We’re getting a lot of data, and full light spectrum readings from the planet, thanks to the tracking telescope. Our analysers have already provided data on the planet’s atmosphere. Its temperature range, and on whether it has water and so on.

  Using Earth’s scale, we’ve also calculated the distance from the Delta Pavonis Star to its fourth planet, as 0.9 AU.

  However, the fact that Pavonis is a yellow-orange star, meaning it has a lower temperature, offsets the fact that the planet is closer to its star than the Earth is to our Sun. But, that also means that the planet’s temperature should be similar to Earth’s…”

  “As you can see, we already have a helluva lot of data,” Tommy went on. “Even though we’ve only just taken the search over from Captain Merance’s team.

  “We’re still…” Paul started to say, and then stopped as Trisha entered, and discretely nodded ‘thank you’ to Traven.

  “As I was going to say,” he reiterated.

  “We’re about three light-years from Pavonis, as far as my instruments can tell. Which means that we will have to come up with a plan, now. So that, in seven years’ time, when we need to rotate the ship and slow it down. We’ll know exactly what we’re going to do, and, when.”

  “Uh, uh. You’ve been on Jeff’s jungle juice again,” Steven exclaimed. “Why rotate the ship that early? It would surely be better to rotate it in nine years, time. Otherwise, you’re going to lose your Primary telescopes just when you need them?”

  “You’re right in one respect, Steven,” Paul agreed. “But we’ve got tracking telescopes in the rear facing observation domes. Not as good as, the front facing ones I grant you. However, by then, we will be much closer to Pavonis itself. So, it’s just a trade-off.”

  “I agree with Paul, Captain. I think nine years down the line is too late to rotate the Acarea,” Tommy said.

  “Eight to eight and a half years maximum would be my estimate. Just in case, we have to realign our trajectory.

  Otherwise, if we are way out. Then, with only the small jets to turn us, it could take quite a long time to get us back on course again.”

  During this discussion, Traven remained quiet. However, he couldn’t help noticing that everyone was addressing him as Captain, again. That pleased him and reminded him that he would have to enforce his authority more in the future, especially when they were preparing to land on planet four.

  “Don’t worry, Tommy,
we’ll have a more accurate intercept time shortly,” Paul told him. “My processors are running flat out.”

  “So are mine, Paul.”

  “I should hope so. We need to decide exactly where we want to land,” Captain Traven added.

  “More importantly, we need to land this tub in one piece,” Trisha commented, her voice sounding strained.

  “H’mm. Just like that. You think it’s that easy.” Jeff muttered, almost to himself.

  “No, Jeff,” Tony almost snapped at him.

  “Like the Captain said. It’s common sense. We need to have a plan and maps of where we can expect to be able to land safely.”

  “I did manage to check the externally located rockets Captain, and they’ve been rotated correctly,” Nick added, trying to change the subject.

  This led Traven to think about the future. Assuming all went to plan, he knew that they needed to decide exactly how they were going to be able to keep most of the settlers in stasis on the ship. While the others constructed their underground stasis and habitation complexes.

  Not forgetting the hydroponics facility that would need to be in working order before the rest of the settlers could be brought out of stasis.

  This would definitely be a priority, as, without this, they would not be able to generate a productive society.

  Then, having listened to their bickering for the last few minutes, he finally decided that the rest of the meeting should follow a logical progression.

  “Ok. Now let’s go over what we need to know and do, step by step,” he said and looking around saw that everyone was staring intently at him and waiting for his next words.

  “Right. Paul and Tony. After you’ve taken the latest data and full light spectrum readings of the planet from the tracking telescope, intensify your search for a suitable landing area.”

  “That’ll keep us busy for a while,” Paul, replied, looking pleased.