“Yes most assuredly the details will stop,” Kari emphasized, glancing reassuringly at Thomas. She kissed him chastely on the cheek.
“I’m thinking it might be time for me to go,” Thomas suggested, starting to get up out of his chair. Kari grabbed his shoulders and forced him back down.
“Don’t you let her make you feel uncomfortable,” Kari ordered. “The good Doctor as a general rule spends most of her time here in the Observatory, but when she does go back to her quarters you can bet her husband has a good time.”
This time Julie blushed… she picked up the nearest clipboard and gave Kari a quick whack on the shoulder. “I know, I know,” she said with a chuckle. “I’ve confided equal amounts of dirt to you over the years, myself.” She carefully placed the clipboard back on her desk. “Perhaps we can agree to respect each other’s privacy?”
“I think that would be a great idea, you dirty-minded woman,” Kari said cheerfully. She noticed that Thomas had his eyes closed tightly as he desperately tried to wish himself instantaneously to another location on board the Pathfinder. His attempt at psychic transportation naturally failed and he opened his eyes, still appearing, for the most part, extremely embarrassed.
A red light on the Comm-link next to Julie’s clipboard flashed red. “Dr. Markham, this is Jeff Mathison. I’m sitting up here in the Garden wing absolutely stumped at the moment. Thomas Roh wouldn’t be down there in your Observatory by any chance, would he?”
“Yes, I am most definitely here,” Thomas piped up loudly, instantly straightening in his chair. “Anything you need me to do just ask Jeff. I’ll be up there before you can blink twice.”
“Well it’s nothing serious at the moment but it is puzzling,” Jeff continued. “We’re trying to put the ‘B’ side of the Garden wing into Autumn mode, but for some reason I can’t fathom the ‘cooler weather’ subroutine isn’t kicking in to adjust the environmental controls.”
“It’s the same software that’s used to control the temperature on the ‘B’ side of the Livestock wing, isn’t it?” queried Thomas.
“That’s the puzzling part,” pointed out Jeff. “The Livestock wing switched automatically into ‘autumn’ mode early this morning – just like it was supposed to. There’s no reason we can find why the Garden wing shouldn’t have done the same thing. Could you please stop up for a moment and take a look at it? I was hoping to get out of here a little early this evening.”
“Give me ten minutes,” Thomas requested, grinning triumphantly at Dr. Markham. “I’ll have your problem fixed in no time.”
“Thanks… thanks a lot Thomas,” Jeff said gratefully. He signed off and the Comm-link’s red light dimmed back to normal.
“Can I come with you?” Kari asked curiously. “I haven’t been up there in a while and we can go for a romantic walk after you’re done.”
“Sure,” Thomas said, offering her his arm. “Come on along then. I’ll buy you an apple.” Every day brought at least half a dozen similar situations, all of which he would quickly rectify and earn a pat on the back from the folks that he helped. Either this wouldn’t work or that wouldn’t initialize or something wouldn’t start up properly. He had been typing on computers since middle school and learned his trade well – computers were his specialty. That was why he expected to find Jeff waiting for the two of them in the Garden wing…
…and was totally astonished to find almost the entire crew complement of the Pathfinder there. Hundreds of people – practically all of the passengers along with everyone not currently on duty – were standing in a large half circle in the ‘dance’ area where their Fourth of July celebration had been held.
“What the hell?” Thomas asked, stepping forward onto the gravel walking path with Kari right behind him. At the center of the semi-circle of people was a small stage area and podium behind which stood Captain Kaufield. As the two of them approached the entire crowd turned and began applauding. Kari grinned gleefully as Thomas again began blushing.
“This will be a brief ceremony,” Dennis said into his microphone as the applause and cheering subsided, “but a very important one. We have traveled far since leaving our home galaxy and endured much in the aftermath of the attack on Earth. That is why the command staff and I have decided to take a moment to honor two people who have sacrificed quite a bit in order for the rest of us to survive.”
Standing next to him, Mary stepped forward. “We would all very much appreciate it if Glen Fredericks and Thomas Roh would please join us up here,” she said, clapping as she took a step backward. A new round of applause filled the area.
“What’s going on?” Thomas asked, turning curiously to look at Kari.
She shrugged and let go of his hand. “Why don’t you go up there and find out?” she suggested, laughing with her perfect voice as she leaned over to kiss him. The applause increased substantially as she did so, and Thomas distinctly heard some familiar voices hooting and hollering in the background. He silently made a mental note to have a ‘chat’ with those people later. In the meantime he took his girlfriend in his arms and dipped her as he continued kissing her deeply. Then he searched the faces in the crowd until he found Glen – they both looked at each other and shook their heads in complete disbelief.
Accepting the inevitable, both he and Glen casually made their way through the cheering crowd and stepped up onto the platform. Thomas stared at Glen, completely astonished, and he could tell by his mentor’s expression that he too had not expected the reception. From the expression on Mary’s face it was perfectly clear that he had also been fooled by his fiancé.
“Captain…” Thomas started to say, but Dennis held up a hand. The crowd quieted as he turned his attention back to them.
“It is very safe to say that we would not be here if these two men had not motivated their staff and gotten our CAS Drive working while we were trapped in our home galaxy.” He gave them a quick salute. “But our recent encounter in the wasteland area tested them once again to the extreme by forcing both civilian scientists to temporarily function as soldiers in our military so that we could successfully repel our enemies. There’s no other way to acknowledge their effort other than to thank them very sincerely for saving our lives and the Pathfinder – not once, but on two occasions.” He saluted them again, more firmly this time and the entire crowd began applauding and cheering again. Thomas looked around at all the happy faces in disbelief as he stood next to Glen. Adam was standing at the front of the crowd with a noticeably pregnant Nori at his side. Both of them looked happier than he had ever seen them.
“For your commitment to excellence and bravery during combat conditions, both of you are today receiving a Silver Star,” Mary said cheerfully. She stepped forward and placed a pure white ribbon around both of their necks as they bowed their heads – both men glanced at each other, still flabbergasted. Thomas looked down at his chest, noting that the medallion hanging at the bottom of his ribbon was highly detailed and all around cool-looking. He turned the metal star over and over in his hand, admiring the simple weight and feel of it. Together he and Glen stood there amidst the applause and cheering for several minutes, until Kaufield finally stepped up to the microphone once more and motioned for silence.
“But we’re not quite done here yet,” he said. “One of these two men gets a second award.” Both Glen and Thomas looked at each other curiously as Colonel Murray, Corporal Henderson and his daughter Lucy walked up onto the stage. The little girl held a wrapped package and giggled gleefully as she handed it to Thomas.
Deciding to work the crowd a bit Thomas tucked the package underneath one arm as if to save it for later. Immediately people began hollering and cheering and he finally gave in and opened the gift. He held up a beautifully framed child’s picture that showed a donkey in the Garden wing eating apples off of one of the trees. There was a rainbow smeared in the background and green grass scribbled in at the donkey’s feet.
Lucy’s Picture
“Did you make th
is for me?” Thomas asked Lucy curiously. She looked up at him with brilliant, excited dark eyes and nodded with a smile, carefully hugging her father’s leg. Her dark hair was bound up in a ponytail and she had on a bright blue dress.
“It’s so that you know which end to think with next time,” she said innocently. “You think with the side that eats apples!”
The crowd erupted in laughter and it took a few minutes for the commotion to die down. Thomas stood there with a confused look on his face as Colonel Neeland stepped up to the microphone. “I know you’re confused, Thomas, so I will explain. Corporal Henderson told me the tale of your mighty trek across deck four during the wasteland crisis,” Murray announced, quieting the crowd with the strength of his voice. “But if you find yourself in a similar situation again, we in the military would suggest that the next time you run across deck three all the way to the lifts at the rear of the Pathfinder. As you know, they take you directly to the Lab wing, and it’s much safer than flashing your badge and forcing our marines to escort you down to deck four so you can sprint across a potential battle zone.” Once again, Thomas felt his face flushing with embarrassment. He glanced out into the crowd and found Kari, who was standing at the rear of the group laughing and applauding with everyone else.
“What can I say?” Thomas decided, stepping up to the podium and speaking into the microphone. “I didn’t know your troops had the entire area cordoned off. Tactical strategy is your department, Colonel – not mine!” He triumphantly held Lucy’s picture in the air and Kaufield thumped him firmly on his back.
“Spoken like a true civilian,” Dennis shouted into the microphone, clapping his hands. He turned and pointed to both Glen and Thomas who stood side by side with their new medals dangling. “Congratulations, gentlemen!”
“Congratulations!” the entire crowd repeated, right before the noise became too loud for anyone to hear anything except for the clapping, hoots and hollers.
“Congratulations indeed,” Thomas repeated to himself, thinking back to just how far he had come in just a few short months. With the experience he had gained working on the Pathfinder Project, he was now accomplishing more by working a lighter schedule each day than he ever had while putting in the longer hours. He had become a teacher, and – although he wouldn’t recognize it for a few more years – a true leader as well. He lifted Lucy up into his arms and gently hugged her before kissing her firmly on one cheek. Next he carefully handed her back to Corporal Henderson to the delight of the cheering crowd surrounding them.
* * * * *
The next morning found Kaufield sitting calmly in the Command Dome, listening to the activity around him. Mary was busy scanning the immediate area with motion sensors, quickly locating the latest Canary Probe to return from yet another of Dr. Markham’s test sites. She turned and nodded at the Captain, acknowledging the probe’s successful journey. Across from her, Adam sat at his station carefully monitoring the Pathfinder’s current course alongside the outer edge of Poseidon’s gravity river.
“All preliminary data from the Canary probe indicates a successful transit,” Glen’s voice said cheerfully from the open Comm-link at the Captain’s side. As usual he was down in the Lab wing making sure the CAS team kept everything running perfectly.
“Continue the countdown to our transit,” Kaufield ordered.
“The ship is secure and ready for PTP,” Adam responded. “May I ask where we’re going this time? Do additional lengthy, boring gravitational studies lie ahead in our future, perhaps?”
“Good guess,” said Mary, laughing happily. “Dr. Markham is very enthused about these ‘boring’ studies as you call them. She’s worked her whole life to find out more about the universe and I would imagine could care less if the rest of us are interested or not.”
“Well I like a little more excitement in my life,” Adam responded. “That’s probably why I hooked up with a fighter chick.” He heard Kaufield laughing in the background and smiled.
“The Canary Probe has docked with the Pathfinder,” Mary reported. “We’re all set for a transit to the new test site.”
“Coordinates are set and verified, Captain,” said Glen from the Lab wing. “One minute, ten seconds remain until CAS Drive activation.”
“So how does Glen like his medal?” Kaufield asked Mary, chuckling a little at the memory of the prior day’s events. “Is he letting all of the attention go to his head?”
“No,” Mary replied, smirking slightly. “He’s got a really quiet, humble personality. Like Thomas, he was very overwhelmed by the surprise and all of the attention. They both feel everyone who worked with them day after day deserve the award as much as they do. That’s why they hung their medals on one of the walls in the Lab wing – so everyone can share them.”
“Having a hero or two around for our people to look up to never hurts,” Kaufield decided. “We don’t know how long we’re going to be out and about traveling the universe, so it’s also important to keep morale up.”
“Twenty-two seconds to transit,” Glen’s voice sounded out confidently. “All CAS systems read green.”
“Thomas has really turned his life around,” Adam said. “The kid was absolutely destroyed emotionally by the attack on Earth and having to cope with the after effects. I’m very proud of him and I made sure to tell him that yesterday evening.”
“He still feels he isn’t always contributing enough these days,” Mary said softly. “But when he looks back on the demand he was placing on himself to perform he can at least admit now that a lot of it was unrealistic. He was simply expecting too much of himself.”
“Ten seconds,” commented Glen.
“A lot of people never recover emotionally from what he went through,” Kaufield said. “Whether he and Glen can admit it, they are heroes.”
“I can hear everything you guys are saying up there, by the way,” Glen laughed heartily. “The Pathfinder is ready for transit in five, four, three…”.
They had grown accustomed to the routine, instantaneous CAS leaps across vast distances over the months that had passed since the attack on Earth. There was the usual quick PTP flash and then it was over – destination achieved. The CAS procedure used was exactly the same as standard PTP, the only differences being distance and the amount of power they could apply to the engine using the singularity’s electricity instead of the alternative power generated from burning liquid fuel. Short range trips had become as commonplace as the longer ones, which was why they were all astonished…
…when this time the ship bucked wildly from side to side and several consoles in the command ring in front of Mary and Adam suddenly sparked and began smoking. Kaufield leaped to his feet and caught Ensign Long, who had lost his balance and was about to fall. He steadied the young man and then frowned in frustration as the lights in the room went dark. Aside from a few consoles whose screens still glowed with power they were unexpectedly shrouded in darkness. Dennis immediately smelled the acrid odor of burnt electrical insulation, and he could see a small fire burning inside one of the valuable laptops.
“What in blazes was that?” he asked, confused by the sudden silence in the Command Dome. Almost all of the computer systems that provided the normal background noise had stopped functioning.
“I have no idea,” he heard Adam comment from across the room.
“The damage control computer is still working, sir,” Ensign Long reported. Kaufield could see the eerie outline of the man’s face as he reviewed the computer’s data. “Aside from the electrical failure we have minor structural damage to the Garden and Livestock wings… but the computer reports they are still intact and pressurized.”
“Thank God for that,” Mary concluded softly.
Abruptly the power and lights snapped back on and everyone quickly busied themselves at their stations. Dennis watched and waited helplessly as they worked, fighting back a burst of anger and intense frustration at the unexpected situation.
“The Pathfinder is on b
ackup systems,” Mary reported. “Battery power only… the CAS singularity is not… I repeat… not active.” Swiftly, she put up an image of the wand on one of the monitors to verify. “It’s gone dark.”
Dennis quickly activated the closest Comm-link. “Glen,” he said firmly, “This is the Command Dome. What’s going on down there…? Was there some sort of a problem with the transit?”
“I’m not… sure yet,” came the hesitant reply. “Please stand by.”
“There’s nothing out of the ordinary on motion sensors,” Mary reported. “But I do think you should look at this,” she commented, putting up an image on one of the overhead screens.
Burning in the center of the screen was a distant star. In the foreground was a huge scattering of thousands of small comets, their bright tails all pointing away from the star’s solar radiation. Several extremely thin nebulae, composed of angry red-colored dust stretched and twisted their way through the cloud of comets and deeper into the image as far as they could see. The normal blackness of empty space was completely gone – instead they were staring at a screen filled with a soft golden mist. From an astronomer’s perspective it was a spectacular sight and everyone paused for a moment to simply admire the scene.
“That’s a really remarkable view,” Kaufield commented, “But it’s most definitely not where we’re supposed to be right now. We were programmed to emerge from the transit trip next to a trinary star system.” He met Adam’s gaze with a look of puzzlement. “So that begs the question, where the hell are we?”
“Captain, this is Glen,” said Fredericks, his voice momentarily distorted by a burst of static on the still-open Comm-Link. “Someone changed our destination coordinates right before we activated the CAS Drive. We landed in the exact center of the Poseidon gravity river.”
The Pathfinder Project Page 31