As if that wasn't bad enough the courts were working overtime to try and convict the Starway Corporation and anyone associated with it such as Arn and Elias. Arn expected a decision any day.
It was Friday and Arn was in a hurry. The courts had ruled that any current or former officer of the Starway Corporation was to be arrested and detained for a summary judgment. Included in this order was Elias even though he had never been an officer of the Corporation. Such fine points of law didn't seem to matter.
Arn knew the indictment was being driven by Mason and his supporters. How he had gotten so much power in so short a time was a mystery to Arn. But it didn't matter, Arn had to leave the Centauri System immediately.
He would take one of the corporation's wormhole ships and make the jump to Luhman 16. Arn had friends there.
“Don't let him get away,” said Hugh Mason.
“Yes sir,” said the head of COPS. He immediately left for the Federation's cruiser which was docked to the Hadar habitat.
The order had not come down to law enforcement yet and Mason was afraid the Starway leaders would be beyond his grasp by the time the courts made a move.
At that moment Arn Strombecker was in the office of the current Starway CEO, Mark Sachs.
“Go on Arn. There's no use you staying here. Mason has won this round but if one of us keeps our freedom we may still win.”
“No Mark, if I go you should go with me. But I still like to think that we can win in the courts. I like to think that the courts are after justice, that this is just a temporary perversion.”
“It's too late Arn. But if you go, when the worse happens maybe you can ride to the rescue.”
Arn Strombecker was torn. He was a man that believed in the idea of the law. He couldn't imagine that he and Mark and Elias could all be railroaded by that man Mason's manipulation of the law.
“After all this Corporation and ourselves have done for the people of the habitats I can't believe they are abandoning us now.”
“They are afraid, Arn. Fear destroys good people and enables bad. Anyway someone has to find out what has happened to Elias. He should have been back well before now. He may have all the evidence we need to clear our names and the Corporation's reputation.”
“Yes we've got to find Elias,” said Strombecker. “Very well then I'll go. But I'll be back as soon as I can with Elias.”
“And I'll hold the fort,” said Sachs rising to shake Strombecker's hand.
Strombecker left Sachs office and hurried to the docking port. Now that he had determined what needed to be done he would waste no more time. Starway 1 was waiting there, the oldest of the Corporation's fusion ships but newly equipped with a wormhole generator.
Arn had enlisted the aid of a handful of close friends he had know for many years.
We'll be the oldest crew on the star lanes, he thought as the electric sped toward the docking area.
At that moment heading to the docking area on the other end of the space habitat was Captain Otto von Steinbinck, the commander of the TS-17. Steinbinck had commanded a Federation ship for over twenty years, he expected no problems stopping Strombecker should he try to run.
Steinbinck was aboard the TS-17 before Strombecker had even arrived at the other docking port. He quickly, with a professionalism that was to be envied, had maneuvered his ship away from the habitat and was at a distance where he could monitor all outgoing traffic.
As the Starway 1 cleared the docking area and set a course that would take it far enough away from the habitat to use the wormhole generator, Steinbinck was doing something that was out of character for him. He had gotten distracted by a problem with the TS-17's internal comm system. Even though it was made redundant by all the Emmies onboard Steinbinck was somewhat insulted that he should be given a ship in such a condition.
It wasn't until the First Officer had called his Emmie a third time that Steinbinck answered.
“Yes Lieutenant,” said Steinbinck obviously annoyed.
“Sir we have the departure of a Starway ship on our screens do you want to follow?”
“Of course Lieutenant! Follow, overtake and intercept. I'll be there in a moment.”
The TS-17 moved to intercept the Starway 1 but the spaceship had too much momentum and the TS-17 had to take a pursuit vector. By this time the Captain had made his way to the command center.
“Lieutenant are we overtaking them?”
“Sir they had a head start, it will be some time before intercept.”
“Not acceptable Lieutenant, I want full power now.”
“Yes sir. Engine room this is the First Officer, go to full power, I repeat, full power now!”
Down in the engine room, the Chief Engineer let loose a string of invectives.
“Damn fools don't they know we could lose containment? Donnelly, watch that containment screen closely. Tell me if it enters the critical zone. Okay open it up.”
The flow of Helium 3 and deuterium increased quickly into the confinement area of the fusion rocket. In a magnetic field ten-thousand times the strength of the Earth's magnetic field, for a brief moment a Helium 3 and deuterium nucleus approached to within one-trillionth of a meter of each other and fused. The release of the energy from billions of such encounters occurring at over one-hundred million degrees Kelvin, over six times greater than the core of the Sun, soon had increased the thrust of the rocket.
“Donnelly,” yelled the Chief Engineer. “Report!”
“Sub-critical sir.”
“Okay open the hydrogen tank.”
Injecting hydrogen into the mix would again increase the exhaust thrust and speed of the ship if it didn't destabilize the plasma containment.
Chief Engineer Holst looked at Donnelly who just shrugged.
“Dr. Strombecker,” said Al Hunt who was manning the radar. “That Federation ship is gaining on us.”
“How?”
“They've jumped their power probably.”
“They're crazy they could easily lose confinement.”
“Well if they don't blow themselves up they should overtake us in no more than half an hour.”
“We can't let them stop us. How close will we be to the jump limit Jack?”
Jack Anderson was operating navigation.
“The navigation Emmie says we'll still be five minutes away.”
“Well we'll have to chance it.”
“Chance what?”
“A jump.”
“A jump,” said Al. “And you think they are crazy.”
“How are we going to slow to make a jump and not have them catch up?” asked Jack.
“We're not.”
“Oh.”
Jack looked at Al who looked at the others in the command center and just shrugged. They all owed a lot to Arn Strombecker, certainly their careers. He had bailed each and everyone of them out of a jam at some point in their lives. Still, this was asking a lot.
“Just wait until Jim hears,” said Al.
Jim Campbell was in the engine control room. He heard Arn call for him to be ready to make a jump.
“Make a jump?” said Jim. “When?”
“Less than five minutes,” said Strombecker.
“But we can't be slowed enough by then.”
“We are not going to slow, we're not even slowing down.”
“What, you can't make a jump at this speed, it's never been done.”
“Jim we have no choice. If the Federation cruiser stops us we'll all end up in a Federation prison for who knows how long.”
“Well I don't think it will work.”
“Jim just cast the near wormhole mouth a bit further than usual.”
“I can't do those calculations that fast.”
“Let the Emmie,” said Strombecker.
“Yeah sure.”
After Strombecker got off the comm Jim said, “You heard him Emmie my boy, start calculating.”
The Emmie had just finished the calculations when Strombecker called for the wo
rmhole generator to engage.
Jim Campbell crossed his fingers closed his eyes and whispered, “Engage wormhole generator.” Just loud enough for the Emmie to hear.
Watching the front viewing screen a pinpoint of light appeared in the distance. As the Starway 1 raced towards it the light grew in brightness and size. The ship was closing in until, almost on top of it, the once shimmering bubble of light solidified into something like a giant spherical bead. A sound like the popping of heated, bending metal filled the ship just before it entered the wormhole and was gone.
Chapter 9
Sci-pedia - The Online Resource for Science – Isotopic Energy Reservoir
The isotopic energy reservoir banks, which provide the huge amount of energy the wormhole drive demands when forming the wormhole mouths, is an energy storage system which uses the atomic nucleus rather than chemical means to store energy.
As such it provides several orders of magnitude (up to 1,000,000 times) more energy density than any other energy storage method. By using specific isotopes energy can be stored in an excited state of the nuclei of those isotopes.
Another advantage of isotopic storage is that the energy can be released in a much shorter time scale than usual. For example, in a specific excited state of an isotope of molybdenum, a "hole" created in an atomic shell will attract a free electron. The free-electron falling into that shell will in turn transfer just the right (small) amount of energy to the nuclei and, like a switch, cause a fast but controlled release of the stored energy.
Such isotopic energy storage reservoirs are sometimes called isotopic capacitor banks although they are nothing like traditional capacitors.
“There it is,” said Elias.
They were reviewing the topological radar data they had been gathering of the moon's surface for almost a week.
“That can't be a natural feature, it's too angular.”
“Well I don't know,” said First Officer James Tiberius. “If it's not natural then it is alien because we know we are the first people to explore this system.”
“Dag what do you think?”
“Sir I think as First Officer Tiberius has stated before. If we are going to the surface we should go while we still have the choice and the area in question seems as good as any in which to land the Selkirk.”
“Sounds logical to me,” said Burgess.
“Of course,” said Elias. “What do you say James?”
“When in Rome. I'll get the shuttle ready for a terra firma encounter.”
The atmosphere of the moon was thicker than expected. The shuttle was a gliding body when landing in an atmosphere and was buffeted about quite strongly. James and Elias were too busy to notice but Burgess was getting quite nervous.
Seeing how tense she was Elias turned back to Dag and said, “Dag you were saying before.”
Dag said, “This is from the shipwreck on the island.”
In this distress the mate of our vessel laid hold of the boat, and with the help of the rest of the men got her slung over the ship's side; and getting all into her, let go, and committed ourselves, being eleven in number, to God's mercy and the wild sea; for though the storm was abated considerably, yet the sea ran dreadfully high upon the shore, and might be well called 'den wild zee', as the Dutch call the sea in a storm.
Dag was interrupted by a violent shuddering of the shuttle but continued. “Also from that chapter,” he said.
After we had rowed, or rather driven about a league and a half, as we reckoned it, a raging wave, mountain-like, came rolling astern of us, and plainly bade us expect the 'coup de grace.' It took us with such a fury, that it overset the boat at once; and separating us as well from the boat as from one another, gave us no time to say, “O God!” for we were all swallowed up in a moment.
A violent downdraft forced the shuttle to drop several hundred feet. After a moment Dag continued:
I got to the mainland, where, to my great comfort, I clambered up the cliffs of the shore and sat me down upon the grass, free from danger and quite out of the reach of the water.
I was now landed and safe on shore, and began to look up and thank God that my life was saved, in a case wherein there was some minutes before scarce any room to hope. I believe it is impossible to express, to the living, what the ecstasies and transports of the soul are, when it is so saved, as I may say, out of the very grave . . .
Just then the First Officer interrupted and said, “Prepare for landing.”
Burgess sighed in relief and thanked Dag for keeping her mind occupied.
The landing was much smoother than the descent. Dag moved to the environmental monitoring station.
“Atmosphere; forty percent nitrogen, thirty percent carbon dioxide, eleven percent oxygen, thirteen percent argon, other gases six percent. Trace of water vapor. Temperature one-nine-one Kelvin or minus eighty-two Celsius. Wind twelve knots and gusting. Gravity is point-seven five Earth. Atmospheric pressure slightly above Earth.”
“Cold, windy and dry,” said Elias. “Will the breathers work under these conditions James?”
“Should, we'll still need a small canister of oxygen but we should be able to strip the oxygen molecules out of the air. And the nitrogen is good to go.”
“Well that should relieve us of having to carry bulky tanks on any EVA.”
“Yeah and I place us at only half a mile from the target so it would be an easy walk if not for the wind.”
“We are going to have to rope together because of that wind. It wouldn't be safe otherwise,” said Elias.
“Roger that,” said James.
“Burgess I want you and Dag to stay here. Dag I want you to be ready to come to our assistance if need be,” said Elias.
Dag nodded but Burgess only looked worried.
“Don't worry honey. Between James and Dag I'll be alright.”
“You bet,” said James with a smile. “Okay let's get into the gear and cycle out.”
The EVA suits were comfortable and warm even in the extreme weather. Made out of thin monofilaments they covered the wearer completely. The breather attachment was pushed through the fiber material into one's mouth and then the material sealed around it automatically. The suits even allowed the skin to “breathe” while controlling heat loss.
Layers of clothing covered the monofilament suit more in deference to modesty than necessity. Still, the outer layers did provide some protection from the elements.
The only problem with the suits was that the voice of the wearer was somewhat muffled. But by applying speech algorithms the suit's Emmie was able to make the voice clear although some complained it changed the tone and timbre.
“James do you read?”
“Yeah Elias I got you.”
“My Emmie says the object of interest is straight ahead and over that hill.”
Elias pointed straight in front of him.
“Roger that.”
“Dag do you read?”
“Yes Elias.”
“We are moving out now.”
“Understood,” said Dag.
“The ground seems to be covered with a frost and somewhat slippery, probably solid carbon dioxide considering the temperature. Very foggy, probably a carbon dioxide mist.”
“Agree sir,” said Dag.
James and Elias were roped together with Elias in the lead.
The hill was steep but the reduced gravity somewhat compensated. The ground was too slippery to move quickly. After five minutes Elias estimated they were about halfway up the hill.
“Dag can you locate us in relation to the target?”
“Sir you are about a third of the way to your destination.”
“Better than I thought,” said James.
“Yeah,” said Elias. “But we need entirely different shoes for this terrain. These just aren't providing any grip.”
“I know.”
It was just a few more minutes until Elias topped the hill and started down the other side.
“Oh my,�
� he started to say. “It can't be.”
Then James who was still somewhat on the other side of the summit felt a tightening of the rope. Then a hard yank almost pulled him off his feet. He stumbled forward, if not for the slight upslope and lower gravity he would have probably gone down.
“Elias what's wrong?” he yelled.
There was silence.
“Elias can you hear me?”
More silence.
“James this is Burgess, what's wrong?”
“I don't know Burgess but I'm almost on the other side. The rope is still taut so Elias should be on the other end. I'll tell you in a minute.”
James finished scrambling to the top, even in the dense mist he could see Elias was down just below him.
“Elias is down, I see him, I'll be there in a second.”
James reached Elias and bent down over him. He reached out his hand to turn him onto his back.
Elias opened his eyes and said, “You okay James?”
James was surprised.
“Am I alright! Are you crazy? The question is are you alright?”
“I'm fine James.”
“Elias you're alright aren't you?” asked Burgess.
“I'm fine honey.”
“Well if you're fine then why don't we get you on your feet,” said James.
“Sure James. I was just a little stunned by what I saw down the hill. And then I slipped.”
James helped Elias up and brushed him off.
Elias turned to look down the hill and then pointed.
As James looked where Elias pointed he saw something that stunned him also.
“It can't be,” said James.
“It can't but it is,” said Elias.
“What is it?” asked Burgess.
“It's a ship,” said James. “A fusion ship.”
“Sir, did I hear you correctly, you see a fusion ship?” asked Dag.
“That's right Dag. Right in front of us at the bottom of the hill. It's a sight and it seems to be intact. As if it was gently set down by some giant hand.”
Mach's Metric Page 6