by Jeff Sims
Jenna, and to a small extent Ponwe, had been fascinated with the large number of shows that were purportedly from Earth. Last night he had watched a few minutes of a sporting contest where humans had to toss a ball into a basket.
They had shown the human players’ height and weight in some archaic measuring system. If he had performed the translation correctly, the humans were huge – unbelievably huge, so huge in fact that he didn’t believe it and turned it off.
Ponwe shrugged and answered, “Hiricula discovered Neto almost 210 years ago. Eighty years after that they were semi-useful members in our society. After 210 years of our helpful guidance, the Netos are now useful.
Jenna snorted and repeated, “Helpful guidance. Is that what the government is officially calling its program of selective breeding and DNA tampering? Anyway, your point.”
Ponwe: “The Alliance discovered Earth 300 years ago. And after 300 years the humans are still as violent and anti-social as they were back then. Maybe more so. I mean that if there was any way for the Alliance to make them functioning members of society they would have done so by now.
“Okay,” Jenna replied with a certain nasal tone that indicated it wasn’t.
Ponwe replied, “The Alliance’s solution was to restrict travel to the planet by putting military forts in front of the only hyperspace route to Earth. They probably also created the rumor that humans eat other species. There certainly isn’t any evidence to support it. One thing is clear to me though, the Alliance is scared of the humans.”
They had walked about halfway through the park and had reached the new building. When construction was finished, the park would open into the green space surrounding the new building. For now, the area was closed off with safety barricades.
Jenna asked, “How is construction going?”
Ponwe answered, “We are right on schedule.”
Ponwe looked over at the obstacle course. The course was in-between the new building and the park. The barricades had been arranged so that the course could be accessed in either direction. He recognized Loid and saw that Loid was waving him over.
They stepped off the path, walked over to the obstacle course, and stood next to Loid. Loid was standing at the starting line and was performing the role of course director. He had a large timer that could track three beings at a time. When one runner was far enough along, he waved to the next to begin.
Ponwe looked at the line of beings. There were about 20 Hiriculans waiting in line to run the course with 3 Solarians interspersed throughout. The forewoman was second in line. She waved and said hi to Jenna, then briefly stepped out of line to smile at Lucas.
Ponwe noted how young and fit the Hiriculan construction workers were. For the most part they were inexperienced, but Ponwe liked how energetic they were. They were always willing to learn new skills and readily accepted instruction. Ponwe thought that those skills sometimes seemed lost on the new generation.
Yes, there were a few old, grizzled construction veterans, but not many. Ponwe corrected himself; there were exactly 4 older, experienced workers – the ones that Ponwe had specifically demanded. They had been made line leads and had enthusiastically embraced teaching their younger co-workers how to build a building.
Ponwe would have liked more experienced workers on his project, but he could appreciate the sacrifice required. Workers had to sign a contract that stated they would stay on Solaria for at least 18 months and possibly the whole planned construction time of 3 years.
Ponwe imagined that it had been difficult for the recruiting office to find many older, experienced workers willing to uproot their families for so long. The younger ones probably thought this was a big adventure. It would certainly look good on a resume.
They decided to stay long enough to watch the forewoman run the obstacle course. The course had technically been constructed from leftover building materials. However, Ponwe still thought it odd that they had so much leftover material because they monitored their requirements very closely. He didn’t know how they had managed to have 20 meters (22 yards) of large sewer pipe left over. It seemed like a rather huge miss to him.
The course was very well constructed. The obstacles were reinforced with steel beams and appeared to be permanent structures. Everything was brightly painted in line with the surrounding park area. The course looked professionally designed and constructed, not the thrown together mess that Loid claimed it was. Ponwe supposed Loid was just being modest.
Loid pressed the timer button and waved for her to go. She raced through some circular objects on the ground, making sure to put one foot in each circle. Then she grabbed a rope and swung across a small water-filled ditch. Next she climbed over a small wall and jumped down into a net. She crawled through the net, did a half-flip, and landed on her feet.
She then laid down and wiggled through a pipe just barely wider than her. Next, she grabbed a heavy stick for balance and bent over as far as she could. She kept this pose and started walking through the 20 meter section of large sewer pipe.
Loid had rigged the pipe with overhead water sprinklers. Because it was such a nice day, Loid had them turned on full blast. The water made the pipe section a slippery, sloppy mess. She slid once, but she managed to run through the section without falling.
She dropped the stick in the nearby bin and stepped into the dryer. It blasted her with hot air to remove the dripping water, flooded her with desiccant to dry her clothes, and finished by giving her another hot air blast. She stepped out completely dry and ran to the start / finish line. Everyone gave her a congratulatory cheer and she returned to the end of the line for another run.
Loid said to Ponwe, “Care to try it?”
Ponwe answered, “No, we are just going for a walk in the park. I must say though that you did a terrific job constructing this course.”
Just as they were turning to leave and continue their walk, a Solarian raced up and yelled, “Did you hear the news?”
It was clear that no one had, which was probably why the individual had asked. He continued, “A group of Alliance scientists just announced that they found Old Solaria.”
The handful of Solarians at the course jumped and screamed for joy. The Hiriculans seemed rather unfazed by the news, but pretended to join in the revelry.
The Solarian continued, “The scientists are on their way here for a world celebration. I hear they are going to build them a monument.”
Ponwe smiled. It looks like everyone is getting a monument today.
Chapter 17
Captain Solear looked around the bridge. It was clear that they were out of options. The ship was damaged and could barely move, let alone jump into hyperspace. The main power generator was destroyed and the second one was slowly failing.
Further, they were sealed inside the bridge and couldn’t leave if they tried. Possibly the most frustrating thing though was that they could not communicate with the rest of the crew. As a final insult, the passive scanner stopped working.
Everyone had been thinking the same thing. Ella finally vocalized it, “What do we do now Captain?”
Solear replied, “Really, there is nothing we can do now except wait to be rescued. Admiral Dolen should be back in Opron in six days. Then he will realize we did not return and send a ship to help us. We should be rescued in a week, 8 days at the most.”
“Captain,” Putat said silently. “You know that we only have 4 days of power. We will die days before the fleet gets here.”
Ella gently changed the subject by asking, “What do you think the humans will do?”
Solear answered, “Well, the remaining half of the Hiriculan cruiser still has power and air. They should fly over to the other ship and stay there until rescued. It really is the only thing that they can do.”
“It’s been a couple of hours since the last battle. The humans have probably already abandoned ship,” Putat theorized.
Clowy said, “I’m tired. We should sleep.”
Solear exclai
med, “That’s it. Clowy, you’re a genius.”
Clowy turned to him and said, “No, I’m tired.”
Solear smiled and said, “Computer. How much power would we save if we shut down all bridge operations and entered the cryostasis tubes?”
…Calculating. Current power usage is 10%. Shutting down bridge power and entering the cryostasis tubes will lower the usage to below 1%. The extra power will fully charge the ion cannon reservoir before the secondary generator has to shut down…
Solear said, “How long can the reservoir power the stasis tubes?”
…Approximately 720 days…
Solear said, “Clowy, what did you feel when you tested the stasis tubes?”
Clowy thought for a moment and replied, “It felt just like taking a 10 minute nap while being frozen solid.”
They exited the bridge proper and took the electro lift two levels down. Solear put Putat in the first tube, attached the restraining strap around his chest, and selected Advranki. He then loaded Ella, Clowy, and Lexxi into their tubes and selected the appropriate profiles.
As he was fastening Lexxi’s strap, she said, “If we die in here I am going to kill you.”
Fair enough Solear thought. He stepped into his own tube and said, “Computer, continue to monitor the secondary generator. Shut it off before it goes critical. Wake us if there is a significant change in the ship’s status.”
…Command recorded…
Solear said, “Computer, close my stasis tube.” He wasn’t able to fasten his own strap. Oh well, better to live and risk falling out of a tube than sit around for 4 days nervously waiting for the end to come.
……………………
Colin ran his hand along the surface of the perfectly smooth joint where the Sunflower’s main power generator was attached to the hull. He said, “It feels perfectly smooth.”
He continued running his hand up and down where the joint should be. It was perfectly smooth. There was the hull; then at a right angle there was the edge of the power generator. There was no transition from one type of metal to the next. One just flowed into another. More importantly, there was no seam indicative of a weld joint.
“Okay, so the aliens are better metallurgists than we are.” Colin instantly regretted saying aliens the moment it left his lips. He needed to lead by word as well as by example.
Thankfully, both John and Becky let the comment pass without issue. John replied, “You are correct. These two pieces are clearly different types of steel. They have somehow been fused together at a molecular level. The welding process is beyond our understanding or our ability to duplicate.”
Becky was at the engineering station reviewing what limited data was available. She said, “They call it photonic absorption.”
Colin replied, “A photon is an elementary particle, the quantum of light.”
Mike said, “What’s a quantum?”
Colin replied, “The smallest particle. A photon is a key element in light. A photon is the force that makes a laser work.”
Mike said, “Oh, so it must use a similar principle as their beam weapons then?”
Colin nodded in agreement and was about to explain further when Becky interrupted, “It says that a photonic absorption reaction needs an environment. Even if we knew how to do it, we wouldn’t be able to without air.”
Colin shrugged. It stood to reason that aliens could weld joints better than humans. After all, they had invented hyperspace drives, power generators, and a host of other amazing technologies. Heck, they were probably better dancers too. He briefly imagined Lexxi and Becky having a dance off to the Macarena (Los Del Rio 1994).
Colin was at heart a pragmatist. It really didn’t matter to him at this point what they couldn’t do. Colin replied, “Okay, can we cut it?”
John replied, “Yes. At least I think so. I mean this is really high quality alloy steel, but it is steel. We brought acetylene torches with us from Earth. They should be able to cut through the seam. Also, they have their own oxygen tanks, so they will work in a vacuum."
John had obtained an acetylene torch from inventory a few minutes earlier. He lighted it and tried to burn through one of the invisible seams that held the power generator to the hull. Fortunately, it worked. Colin waved to the three crew members to start torching other seams. After 30 minutes they had cut everything that was holding the destroyed power generator to the Sunflower.
Colin waved his arms in the air and yelled, “Okay, let’s give it a tug.”
Paul was waiting patiently in one of the fighters just off the side of the cruiser. He gently edged the fighter as close as possible to the power generator. They attached a heavy length of cable from the fighter to the generator.
Paul backed the fighter as slowly and carefully as possible; dragging the destroyed power generator out of the ship. Paul then backed the fighter well away from both ships, swung the nose half-way around, and released the generator in the rough direction of the system’s sun.
Colin inspected the area. The torch work was very well done. It looked great by human standards, but rather poor compared to what had been there. Oh well, better to have an ugly, functioning power generator than a beautiful, broken one.
Installation was going to be relatively easy. There were only two wires connected to the power generator – the main trunk line and a far smaller diagnostic line that led to engineering.
Colin realized that he was starving and decided to make a quick trip to the john. Mike, Ben, John and Becky, the other four engineers, joined him for a meal and a planning session.
Becky started the conversation by saying, “Switching the units is going to be the easy part.”
Colin thought that the swap was going to be anything but easy. He responded, “Removing the old unit was easy because the Hiriculans blew a giant hole in the side of the ship. We are going to have to remove a section of the Hiriculan cruiser almost as big.”
Becky waved her hand dismissively. She continued, “We have a bigger problem. The trunk line is too short to reach from the primary power generator to the ion cannon. Plus, the secondary generator is going to have to be turned off in a few days. That means we are going to have to wire the bridge directly into the main generator.”
Colin missed having the computer available through his communication pad. It probably could have estimated with a fair degree of accuracy how much time they had before being forced to turn off the secondary generator. The initial, and only, estimate he had received said 4 days. However, with the bridge lowering its energy consumption, they should have enough stored energy in the ion cannon to survive another day or possibly two.
Colin responded, “No. We can leave the trunk line where it is, connecting the secondary generator to the ion cannon. Then we only have to run the primary to the secondary. We can still flow electricity through the secondary to the bridge even if it is turned off.”
Becky responded, “You’re right. That could work. We cut the line and used the 1/3 portion. Now we can run the 2/3 section directly between the two generators.”
Colin checked the distance on the only active workstation. He noticed the clock on the workstation and realized that only 6 hours had passed since they entered Trilon. He couldn’t believe it. He nodded in agreement and said, “Yes. It should work.”
That problem solved, Mike started a new conversation thread. He said, “I inspected the hull. It is mostly intact, except of course for the places it isn’t.”
Becky commented, “Nice work Captain Obvious.”
Mike smiled at Becky’s comment and continued, “I believe that we can fix the huge hole on the starboard side by removing two large pieces from the Hiriculan cruiser and welding them to the Sunflower.” Mike drew a small sketch. There was a large piece that covered the majority of the hull and a smaller piece directly in front of the power generator.
Colin replied, “Smart thinking. By removing it in two pieces instead of one you can weld the first piece onto the hull without waiti
ng for the power generator to be installed.”
Becky asked, “What about the inner hull. You are going to have to replace it before you can install the outer hull.”
Mike replied, “That will be extremely difficult. The inner hull is attached to four levels of flooring and is cross braced. We would have to torch for a week or two to remove it.”
Colin replied, “We have 96 hours to get the primary generator installed.” He left unsaid ‘before we all die’. Colin continued, “What else can we do?”
Becky answered, “Simple. Pull another piece of the outer hull and weld it to the gap in the inner hull. Also, you will have to weld new floors for adequate bracing.”
Colin asked, “What about the missing missile launcher?”
Mike replied, “I checked. We don’t have enough spare parts in inventory to build a replacement. It is possible that we can remove one from the Hiriculan ship, but we would have to modify the firing mechanism to allow it to use Alliance protocols.”
John added, “Further, we have no way of opening and closing the port in the hull. As you know, the nose of the cannon rests against the outer hull. When it is ready to be fired, an electromagnet slides a small piece of the hull aside. When it isn’t firing, the electromagnet holds it in place. It’s also possible that a small photonic absorption occurs to keep it airtight.”
Colin was frustrated. He really wanted a 10th missile launcher. He said, “Okay, so the human equivalent is a manual slide with a giant spring lock. Just build that.”
The next four days progressed in an organized fashion. They were absolutely chaotic, but organized. They quickly fell into a routine – weld, torch, weld, torch, sleep, eat, and repeat.
They started by using the torches to cut a straight line from the top to the bottom of the ship. It was extremely dangerous. One false move and they could cut their suit or drift off into space. The line was too ragged, so they used the beam cannons from the AAU’s to blast the edges and make them as smooth as possible.