As he walked down the crowded streets of the market place, his head in the clouds going over the problem, an alarm on his watch chirped. It was time to get going. It was time to meet the only other person he felt a connection with.
****
The shuttle leveled out and she felt it gently bump as the landing gears lightly touched. Fran Lipton right leg fell into rhythm with her left and they both bobbed up and down to some unknown beat inside her head. She started to hum as the minutes dragged by.
The back door opened and in walked Professor Ricter. Fran stood from the bench and helped him drag in his equipment. He thanked her and placed the last of his bags into a small compartment over the bench. “It seems there is never enough room for my stuff,” he said. “I guess it doesn’t matter; all the important equipment is heading over in another shuttle.”
Fran simply nodded in agreement. Professor Ricter sat down across from her, placed his hands on his knees and sighed. “I know this is tough for you, but I need you on this mission.”
“Thank you for thinking of me Professor. I’ll be honest, I didn’t think we’d ever work together again. It’s not like I would volunteer to be on the Arwen, not after what happened.”
“Yes, Kel was a good man cut down too early, but you put too much blame on the Captain. Without his sacrifice, and I must add the sacrifice of thousands of others, we might not be here today.”
Fran looked at the floor, eager to change the subject. She didn’t want to hear it right now, didn’t want to hear about how noble Kel was in sacrificing himself to save the planet. As much as she hadn’t forgiven Captain Cook for sending him into an unwinnable battle she forget her husband even less for obeying that order. “I always wondered how you always manage to get the Arwen. There are hundreds of ships out there better equipped for this kind of mission.”
“No dear, that’s where you are wrong,” The Professor said smugly. “The Arwen has the best and newest science equipment around. It has a long list of highly sensitive scanners, cameras and a new all emersion holograph room. Plus, I have asked that the Arwen always be on standby for me. Unless she is on a vital military mission she will come back to me and my team.”
“How did you arrange that?” She asked, astonished.
“My mission is too important. After my Gyssyc partner Einstein died I was the only one left from the original team and as such, I had very good leverage with the Corps. That one was on the top of my list.”
The intercom beeped and the pilot’s voice came on. “We’ll be in the air in a few minutes then off to the Arwen. As long as there isn’t any hitch we should arrive in about fifteen minutes.”
Fran’s legs started to bounce again as the reality of going back to the Arwen sank in. She was going to be a professional; she was going to treat the Captain with respect and do all she could not to view her as an enemy. She tried to think about how their relationship was before Kel died, she tried to imagine what it could be like if she could find a way to forgive Captain Cook.
Professor Ricter slammed his hands down on Fran’s bouncing leg. The suddenness of the touch shocked it into stopping. “Doctor Lipton, please stop that, it’s annoying me.”
“Oh,” she replied, “sorry. I’ll do my best.”
“I know, just, please stop and find some other way to dispel your nervous energy please.”
“I’ll do my best, Professor.”
“Thank you,” He took his hand off her leg and leaned his head back then closed his eyes.
Fran spent the rest of the trip concentrating on her legs making sure they didn’t bounce.
******
The Arwen orbited Ulliam waiting for the rest of the personal to land. Captain Cook used the down time to read a trashy romance that had nothing to do with space travel (even though it was set on Mars) or the Corps or anything that would remind her she was on her ship. It was an escape even though it made her feel less intelligent just for reading it. When she heard the door chime she had to finish the last paragraph before saying, “Yes?”
“Captain, may I come in?” It was the Professor.
“Yes, of course, come on in.” Marjorie replied closing the program with the book on it.
When the door opened Professor Ricter walked in. He looked as if he was starting to lose some of the weight she had seen on him in his last video. He wore his lab coat with a grey shirt and a pair of black slacks. His hair looked as if it had been hastily parted, maybe he had run a comb or a brush through it before knocking on the door. His face was beaming with happiness; just in his eyes she could see he was very glad to see her. The two embraced and when they pulled away he held out a gift. “Happy Birthday, Marjorie.”
She took the gift. It was small, just about the size of her hand. It looked quickly wrapped. It did have a bow, and the thought of Professor Ricter even touching a small, pink bow made her smile. “Thank you. Should I open it now?”
“Of course,” he replied following her to her desk.
She opened the gift and saw a small box, one that might hold a ring or even a necklace. She glanced up at him and lifted one eyebrow in curiosity. “Some kind of jewelry?”
“Please, just open it."
She opened it and what she saw made her laugh. He got her a brooch with a detailed etching of the Arwen. Under the ship a small square inscription that read, both in Ulliam and English, ‘The Arwen. Marjorie Cook Captain.’ “Where did you find this?”
“A small shop on Ulliam, I had no idea what to get you and this seemed to be the best thing.”
“I love it, thank you.” She took it out of the box and placed it onto her uniform. “Of course, I can’t wear it when I’m on duty. I’ll be sure to wear it when I can.”
“Thank you, now if you’ll excuse me, I need to check my lab.”
“The Commander and I are having breakfast tomorrow morning, would you care to join us?”
He thought about it for a second before replying. “I’ll try, but I have a lot of work to do. Instruments need to be calibrated, people need to be yelled at, but I’ll do my best.”
“You’re always welcome,” Marjorie said.
He turned to walk away then stopped and turned back. She saw him smile once more and in the sincerest voice she’s ever heard from him say, “It’s good to see you again, Captain.”
She nodded in appreciation and replied, “It's good to see you too, Professor. I’m looking forward to working with you again. Hopefully, this is the planet we’re looking for.”
C hapter four
“We’ve established an orbit around the planet,” Commander Pippleton said.
“Good, get me the professor, I’d like to talk to him.”
She heard the click of the communicator turn on. It was immediately followed by a nearly deafening hum.
“Communication, what is that?” Commander Pippleton yelled over the annoying noice.
“I’m sorry, sir,” The communication officer yelled back. ”We’re picking up massive interference from the planet’s magnetic field. Normally, our systems are protected against that but this interference is nothing like I’ve ever seen.”
“Can you stop it?” Captain Cook asked.
“I’ll have to turn the ship's internal communication system off until we can figure it out.”
“Good, do that, I want this to stop now!”
The man pressed several icons on his computer screen and the hum subsided. “Internal communication is off line.”
“We can’t have it be offline forever. I want some ideas.”
“One method we use to block the interference from a planet’s magnetic field is to raise our shields. Right now, we’re running at a standard 5%, which is strong enough most of the time. We should raise the shields to about fifty percent to see what that does. However, raising them might cause a call from the Professor. His instruments might now work with the shields that high.”
“I’ll deal with the Professor. Raise the shields to fifty percent and turn the communi
cation system back on, let’s see what happens.”
Captain Cook felt some of the hair on her arms lift as the electric static from raising of the shields tickled her skin. The shields always amazed her, even if she never truly understood the science behind how they were generated. Most people simply visualize them as a powerful and easy to manipulate magnetic field, but they were more than that. A magnetic field could easily deflect missile attacks but not energy and the force field that surrounded her ship could deflect both missile and energy attacks. It could be weakened, just like all structures, but it could also be recharged within minutes. The technology was so advanced it could even be worn by someone and taken outside the ship for simple space walks. It surrounded the Arwen like a nearly indestructible bubble and would protect her from all but the most powerful attacks.
The Communication officer carefully placed the ear buds back into his ear. He worked a few icons on his computer screen, which slowly raised the volume of the internal speakers. “The shields seem to be helping. I’m going to open the communication channel and . . . Oh wait, Professor Ricter is requesting to talk to the Captain.”
A small smile formed on the Captain’s lips; of course he wouldn’t waste a moment contacting them once she put the shields up. It would have been a bigger surprise if he wasn’t requesting to talk to her. “Put him through.”
The Professor appeared on the screen. He had his work face on, the one that told her he was not calling her as a friend, he was calling her as a professional. They had worked out a long time ago that their professional relationship would not interfere with their personal one. That meant he wasn’t going to give her any special treatment, it also meant he didn’t expect any from her on any of his requests. “Captain Cook, I insist you lower the shields. They're interfering with my readings.”
“I can’t do that, Professor Ricter. I'm sorry.”
“I cannot do my work with the shields this high and I don’t have the time to recalibrate my instruments again.”
“Professor, I’m not sure if you heard it or not but when we turned our communication equipment on the interference. . .”
“Yes,” he interrupted, “I did hear that.”
“Then you know if we lower the shields it will make ship communication impossible, so I will not lower them, not even for you.”
He let out a long, drawn-out sigh before saying, “Then can I request a shuttle to use for my tests?”
“Of course, I’ll have one readied. Will you be taking anyone else with you?”
“Doctor Lipton and the rest of my staff will stay on the Arwen.”
“She’s not going with you?”
“No, she’ll be more use to me here. Once I’m out I’ll establish communication with my team and we’ll work like that.”
“Can you fly a shuttle?”
“Of course.” He said so matter of fact it made Captain Cook feel foolish for asking. “I can’t have people flying me around like the old days. I have a level three license, proficient enough to fly one of your shuttles. You can look it up if you want."
“I’ll take your word on it. Good luck Professor, keep me in the loop.”
*****
As the shuttle moved away from the planet Professor Ricter got his really good first look at it. It was massive, being about three times the size of the Earth and located about 1.3 AU’s from the sun. That put it just within the goldilocks zone, but barely. The sun heated the atmosphere enough to cause the oceans to evaporate but the planet’s massive gravity prevented the water vapors from rising too high. Low clouds hovered over the slightly green tinted ocean; long dark shadows danced on top white capped waves which traveled endlessly across the planet. The professor spotted one massive storm at the equator. The computer told him it was about the size of North America. It reminded him of the many strange storms he saw on Jupiter, the great red spot being the most famous. Even after hundreds of years that storm was still raging, he wondered if this storm was the same.
The sun was behind him as he maneuvered the shuttle into a better position and he could see more of the planet’s features. It had a huge polar icecap that extended from both the top and the bottom of the planet. If he were to guess he would say it took up more than one-quarter of the planet’s surface. The sun shined brightly off the pure white ice forcing him to dim the window so he could continue to observe. After another half-hour of flying he felt he was finally beyond the planet’s magnetic field. He turned his instruments on and was disappointed to see he would have to travel even further out to get anything useful; the interference was just too much.
He had the computer establish a stable orbit around the planet while he fiddled with the communications. The second he turned the communicator on he knew he’d have a difficult time contacting the Arwen. From the speakers came a loud hiss, and he was unable to view anything on the monitor. It looked like this was going to audio only, no video. “Doctor Lipton, can you hear me?”
The answer came back quickly, but garbled. The static was unbelievable. “Barely, I’m not getting any picture.”
“I know, this is the best we can do with the magnetic field. Tell me what you’ve discovered?”
“Nothing much, the magnetic field is playing havoc with our instruments too. I would recommend sending a probe to the planet. We might be able to get more information if we shield it well enough, but there is still the communication problem, that might not be something we can solve on this trip.”
“Could we launch a probe then retrieve it from orbit?”
“The gravity is too heavy. I don’t think we have a probe strong enough to make the return trip.”
Professor Ricter scrunched his face in disappointment. This wasn’t a good planet. This was a wasted trip. “Okay Doctor, tell me right here, right now. Do you think this is a good planet?”
There was a long pause from the other end. Professor Ricter knew Fran would not make a judgment or commit to something without thinking it through. Finally, she said, “No, I don’t think this is a good planet.”
“So, we wasted our time then.” As he said this he noticed a strange reading from an instrument. Without saying another word he walked over to the computer and was curious to see a very large spike in the planet’s electromagnetic field. “Doctor, do you see. . .”
Before he could finish his sentence every instrument and light in the shuttle blinked out simultaneously.
*****
Captain Cook listened to the conversation between Fran and the Professor. Static from the planet made it difficult to hear. She got the gist of the conversation. The planet wasn’t what they were looking for. It was a waste of time and resources. Captain Cook wondered if that would influence the Corps not to send the Arwen the next time. A smaller ship would have been a better use of the Corps resources.
Every light, every instrument, everything that drew power went dark.
Captain Cook could see nothing; it was like someone had placed a black curtain around her. She heard her bridge crew moving around, fabric rubbing against fabric, the crick and squeak of a chair as someone turned. She sat up and heard her own chair creak, the swish her uniform made when she moved and her own beating heart. “What happened?”
“I’m not sure.” Commander Pippleton replied. Even his normally calm and level voice had a confused edge to it. “It doesn’t seem as if anything is working.”
She heard the Commander moving about, running from one station to the other. The Ulliam had slightly larger eyes than a human and it was proven they could see a better in the dark but, with the absence of any light she figured he was as blind as she was. She heard his arm's slap next to his side, a sign of great agitation. “There doesn’t seem to be power anywhere.”
“Can anyone tell me what happened?”
“Captain,” a woman located to her right where the sensor office is normally stationed spoke up. “Before we lost power, I detected a massive surge in the planet’s electromagnetic field.”
“Cou
ld that have done it?”
“Seems the most likely candidate. I’ve been monitoring the planet’s magnetic fields. I was mapping them out since they seemed interesting to me. They’re very complex, kind of reminded me of the sun’s magnetic field in the way they twisted and overlapped. It’s possible two of the fields overlapped and produced a flair.”
“Like a solar flare?”
“Not nearly as violent but it could produce an EMC pulse.”
“We won’t know until we get power?”
“Yes, I only got a quick look at the readings.”
“Thank you, Ensign. Commander,” She asked looking around the dark to where she thought he was standing. “We need to find out if this is happening all over the ship.”
“I believe it is,” he replied. “I don’t hear anything from the vents which means life support isn’t working. I can’t see how that could only be shut off to the bridge.”
The Arwen Book two: Manifest Destiny Page 3