The Long Way Home

by Darrell Bain

  * * * *

  "Skipper, sometimes you have to accept it and move on. There was no way anyone could have predicted trouble that close to shore.” Lisa sat across from Brackett in his office, just aft of the control room. It was where he preferred to conduct business, rather than the little day cabin that was his by dint of being commander of the boat.

  "I don't care. We're going to have to be more careful. Now we're down another spacer and two more explorers. We simply can't afford to lose people every time we touch down. We were already short almost a dozen explorers and a spacer rating."

  "You know we don't lose people at every stop, Skipper. This was just one of those things. It's in the nature of exploring. By definition, everything on an unexplored planet is new, and what's new is apt to be dangerous. There are going to be surprises, no matter what we do."

  Sighing, he looked down at his clasped hands and back at her, but said nothing.

  Lisa wondered what was going through his mind. It wasn't as if she and everyone else in the boat didn't feel for the ones who'd died, but he seemed to be taking it personally, as if it were his fault. That wasn't good.

  "We'll make it home, Skipper. Actually, this was a good start, except for that last day. We topped off our tanks and stocked up on some good organics. Lieutenant Medford and Larry Nguyen both tell me we'll be getting better tasting meals from it."

  He nodded but still didn't speak, leaving her almost desperate for something to take his attention off the missing crewmen.

  "Skipper, Joyce tells me she likes the work of that young man she's training—Costa. He'll make a good enough astrogator for a backup."

  "How about Waters? What does Joe say about him?"

  "Mmm. Joe says she isn't coming along as well, but they've both barely begun the training. Give her time, and she'll work out, I think.” Privately, she suspected that Whistler simply wasn't interested in training anyone, but she didn't think it was her place to say anything. Not yet. She was performing her duty of propping up the commander and functioning as his sounding board. She didn't want to berate one of his officers—not unless the situation was obviously endangering the boat.

  "She'd better. Astrogators are the one specialty we can't do without."

  "Yes, sir, but we'll manage. Shucks, you could do it, if it came down to that."

  "It's been a long time since the academy, and astronomy and astrogation were my weakest subjects."

  "It would come back, if you needed it. Besides, all the data is in the computer."

  "So it is, but we still have to compute new parameters for every jump out here in unknown space, not to mention all the other calculations and details,” he said, and then abruptly changed the subject. “Are we all ready for the next transit?"

  "Right on schedule. I thought we'd hold the ceremony on the ground, right before we lift off, if that's okay."

  "Fine. Good idea. That's where they died, after all."

  * * * *

  Jeremy was in the control room a week later for the transit out of hyperspace. He had spent only a bare minimum of time there so far—time that was more of an introduction to the instruments than anything else. He really liked being there, even if he was frequently under the eye of the Commander. Chambers usually took the seat to the side of the one directly in front of the big screen. The astrogation station was on one side of it, and a seat for the operations officer on the other. Behind and offset from those, on each side of the crowded room, lived a simulator nook and a tactics and operations station. In a tiny alcove the com tech, usually Spacer Gerald Sparks, received and sent communications and acted as a messenger and gofer. Two pull-down seats served for him and Waters when they had a chance to sit, which wasn't often. When the other officers were all there, it crowded the room to the breaking point. He watched Lieutenant Whistler set up coordinates for the transit, while Lieutenant Commander Chambers explained.

  "We have to hit the gravity well at a precise point and designated vector and under precisely calculated speed and power, and in the correct direction for it to go right. Too soon or too late, too much or too little power, or deviate very far from the vector, and we'd either have to come back around and do it over, or we'd disappear and never be heard from again."

  "Where would we go if we miscalculated?"

  Joyce smiled wryly. “If anyone ever comes back and tells us I'll let you know, but don't hold your breath. There are various theories, but you don't need to worry about them for now. Just be careful. Always let the computer double-check every step. And make damn certain your orientation is right, or we might wind up going only halfway to the star and be marooned. That's happened before. Once the calculated run in hyper is completed, your ship will drop out of hyperspace whether you've made it to the other gravity well or not."

  Jeremy nodded. “Yes, ma'am. I'll be awful careful, if I ever have to do this."

  "You won't, so long as I'm alive,” Whistler said disparagingly. “And now let's have a little quiet, if you don't mind. I need to concentrate."

  Jeremy couldn't help but notice the withering look Chambers gave Whistler, but she said nothing—merely motioned him over toward the T&O alcove occupied by Lieutenant Medford.

  "May we borrow this screen if you're not using it?” she asked him.

  "Sure,” he said with a shrug. “I'm not doing anything useful at the moment."

  Joyce pulled up the star map Whistler was working with and showed Jeremy the star they would transit to and a small part of their prospective path in the Orion spur of the Sagittarius spiral arm, where stars were much thicker.

  "Do those on our path all have planets?” he asked.

  "We don't know, Jeremy. They haven't all been surveyed, and we don't have the data on those which have. It was lost with Sam Johnson. To make it worse, we're not equipped for surveying, as was Sam Johnston, so it's a crap shoot every time. We're trying to pick G type stars, though. Those are more likely than not to have useful bodies orbiting them, at least as far as organics go. They've been around long enough for life to have developed if they have planets orbiting in the life zone."

  "Yes, ma'am. I learned that in the basic astronomy class. Are G sequence stars more common out here or closer toward galactic center?"

  "That's a good question. A little more, likely, but not enough to make too much difference, I should think. It certainly wouldn't matter for a regular exploration ship that can make much longer jumps and jump more often without stocking up than we can in a longboat."

  "Is it just a matter of more power?"

  "Yes, in part, but the gravity drive and capacitors have to be a certain size, too. If ours were big enough to make longer jumps, then we'd be just another starship, albeit a smaller one. Longboats are built for getting around in star systems by utilizing the gravity wells of bodies much smaller than the average star. Which means they can't go much farther through hyperspace than about twenty light years, but that would be pushing their luck. We're sticking to no more than ten or fifteen, as a safety measure."

  "I see, I guess, but then why can't starships make jumps within a system?"

  "You're full of questions today,” she said, but she smiled. “Because they're so big. A starship can't use the gravity well of anything much smaller than a body about five times that of Jupiter. There's a mathematical relationship between the size of the object making a transit and the gravity well of the body it's utilizing. We'll get into that later, if you like, but the math is pretty complicated. In known, surveyed space we'd use a set of pre-calculated tables which includes all the planets and other bodies with enough mass to detect in each system. We have to find them and insert the ones big enough to affect transits into our calculations before a jump. But right now, Commander Brackett just wants you to be able to calculate and set up the coordinates for a transit in the right direction and to the correct star using the right amount of thrust at the right time."

  "I'll learn it,” he said, perhaps a little too enthusiastically, because Lieutenant Wh
istler glanced in his direction.

  "I'm sure you will,” Joyce said quietly. “That's enough in here for today. Go on back and study the section on calculation of the transit point for different-sized target stars and for transits out of systems with more than one mass which affects the transit."

  "Yes, ma'am. Thank you."

  "You're welcome, Costa."

  He headed back to the enlisted day room while hoping that all the study alcoves wouldn't be taken. On the way, he heard the all-hands announcement of the impending transit and hurried his steps. He had barely gotten to one of the remaining acceleration seats and sat down when he felt the sudden disorientation a transit always caused. When he could once again think rationally, he decided that the next time Chambers was teaching, he'd ask her what made it happen. Maybe she would know.

  * * * *

  On the next day, as soon as he was free of other duties, Jeremy headed to the newly rigged gym for some much needed exercise. By the time he put in the required amount of study in xenomicrobiology, maintained his testing instruments and personal equipment, went to the simulated firing range once a week, studied astronomy and the added astrogation material and performed details the Chiefs were always finding for lower ranking explorers, he found himself short on time for the gym. Casey, along with a detail she'd dragooned into helping her, had put together a workable set of tension-inducing equipment, weights and horizontal and parallel bars, as well as a passable running board. He liked the horizontal and parallel bars more than anything else. Running through a set of gymnastics on them gave almost a full body workout, and the running board exercised the legs.

  "Hi, Jere,” Juanita Martinez hailed him from a mat where she was sparring with Casey and getting much the worse of it. “How's the astrogation going?"

  "I know enough now to get us thoroughly lost. How's that for starters?"

  But Juanita was no longer listening. She went flying through the air and hit the mat with a thump.

  "Never take your attention away from your opponent,” Casey said as she held out a hand to help her back up.

  "Umph. I know it now, Chief."

  "Good. That's enough for today. Go play with Jeremy for a while.” He saw Juanita look at him and quickly look away, and he wondered why.

  "Want to wrestle, Jere? Chief Dugan has beaten me up enough today so you wouldn't have any problem putting me down."

  "Wrestle?"

  "Well, not really. I just want to spar around a little with someone who doesn't tie me in knots all the time."

  He laughed. “'Nita, I haven't done hand-to-hand since I graduated."

  "Time to refresh your memory, then."

  He glanced over at the horizontal bar, but ‘Nita looked much more attractive. “Okay, just take it easy on me."

  A half hour later he was panting, bruised and aware of just how much he'd forgotten since his days at the academy, but he was nevertheless pleased. ‘Nita was fun to be with, even if she was a spacer.

  [Back to Table of Contents]

  Chapter Seven

  Regardless of who commanded, COB Rufus Shinzyki thought of Hurricane Jack as his boat. He spent all his waking hours prowling it, looking for discrepancies and checking the work of his Chiefs and Spacers. Nothing was too large or too small to draw his attention if it was out of order or not functioning to specifications. He thought this was even more important while the boat was idled as the astrogators looked for planets orbiting the new star at which they'd arrived. With the boat at rest, he was able to verify that critical components were holding up and that gauges and test instruments were working perfectly.

  On this inspection tour, he had S2 Gerald Sparks and S3 Wynonna Jones along, showing them the finer details of longboat operation not covered in school. He believed in getting the youngsters off to a good start. One day they might run a boat themselves, if they lived that long.

  "Now, this is the connection to the outside capacitors, as I'm sure you know, but we don't have to go outside to see how well they're functioning,” he said. “Jones, bring your inductance meter over here."

  The young spacer selected the instrument from several others she was carrying and held it out to Shinzyki.

  "No, I want you to do it. Go ahead."

  Nervously, she began hooking the instrument to the joint where the terminal capacitor coil riding on the outside of the boat fed into power coils inside. She connected the first lead correctly, hesitated, and glanced at Shinzyki.

  "Go on, you're doing fine. Put the other lead to where the inside coil feeds power to the system."

  Tentatively, she touched the other lead to a spot. Sparks jumped and she jumped.

  "I think you might go a little farther down. Watch your gauge.” He had known what was going to happen and let the harmless sparks startle her into learning.

  Jones touched the lead to the correct site and called off the readings aloud.

  "A smidgen high. Stay where you are. Spence, c'mere."

  When the other spacer was beside him, he said “Take your diacap adjuster and even out the voltages. Jones will call ‘em out for you. And take it easy, just a little at a time, mind you. Too much at once and you could ruin a spool.” He stood back and watched closely while the two young spacers put the voltages back into balance.

  "Good job. Now button up the hatch, and let's move on."

  When they were finished with the Topdeck checklist, Shinzyki led them down to Mideck, where they worked on one of the recyclers and checked environmental settings. On each occasion, he took time to instruct the spacers, and then had them do the bulk of the work. It was slow, but he was patient. He could have finished the whole boat in the time it took them to do one deck, but then they wouldn't have learned anything.

  He was surprised when they met PO John Silks after they had barely started on Mideck. Silks was supposed to be supervising and instructing Juanita Martinez and Larry Nguyen in the same fashion as he had been doing with his spacers. They had started on Lodeck. He had thought they would meet somewhere around the middle of Mideck.

  "PO Silks, are you finished already?” he asked.

  "Yes, sir, Mister Shinzyki. We work fast."

  "Are your spacers learning anything?"

  "Sure thing, Mister Shinzyki."

  He raised a brow but said nothing. Not then. Later that day he found Juanita in one of the study rooms.

  She looked up when he came in. “Hello, Mister Shinzyki."

  "Hello, Martinez. Did you get your hands dirty this morning?"

  "Umm. Well, not too much, sir. PO Silks did most of the work."

  "I guess he explained exactly what he was doing while he was at it?"

  "Umm, uh, yes, sir. Some."

  It was easy to see she that was covering, not wanting to get PO Silks on her case. That was fine. He admired loyalty, but he had been a COB for a long time before becoming a Warrant Officer. He could tell already that Silks must have hurried through the exercise and did all the adjustments or repairs himself in order to get through quicker so he could do something more interesting.

  "Good. Keep at it. You may be a COB one day."

  She smiled. “Yes, sir. If we get home."

  "When we get home, Spacer. Hear?"

  "Yes, sir. When."

  He headed back toward the Chiefs’ day room to find PO Silks. He was there, playing cards with CPO Shin and a couple of the explorer Chiefs.

  "PO Silks, might I interrupt your game for a moment?"

  "Uh, sure, Mister Shinzyki."

  He drew Silks out of the dayroom and into the passageway. There he stood him at attention and put his face about two inches from the man.

  "PO Silks, when I give you the duty of instructing spacers in proper maintenance, I expect you to teach them, not hurry through the work so you can play cards. Is that clear?"

  "But Mister..."

  "I said, is that clear, PO?"

  "Yes, sir. Clear."

  "See that you remember it, son. I shouldn't have to tell you how
far we are from home and how some more of us are sure to die before we get there. If it happens to be the Chiefs who buy it, I want those young spacers to be able to run the boat. That's why we're teaching them. So see that you do it in the future. Every time you have a chance.” He turned and walked away, leaving Silks standing at rigid attention against the bulkhead. He didn't worry about it. Eventually Silks would come to his senses and go on about his business. Hopefully, he would act in a more professional manner from now on.

  * * * *

  "It's no go, Skipper,” Lieutenant Whistler said.

  "Nothing?"

  "Not a thing."

  "How about a Kuiper belt or an Oort cloud?” Jeremy asked. He and Jana Waters were in the control room, being taught by Whistler how to find objects orbiting a star. It wasn't a really difficult task, since longboats carried gravity detectors and were designed to ply star systems, but neither was it a simple one. Even with his background in astronomy, Jeremy could see that he would still need to learn to use the devices for astrogation, much less locating planets. Lieutenant Whistler wasn't much help. He had given the lesson with ill grace, Jeremy thought, but with Commander Brackett watching it had been fairly thorough. It had been lecture mode only, though. Whistler hadn't allowed either of the trainees to get their hands on the mechanisms he was using. And Brackett had just left the control room.

  "Too far out and too hard to find.” Whistler dismissed the question.

  Jeremy glanced at the display. “What's that, sir?” He pointed to a tiny light that flickered for a second at the very edge of the screen.

  "What?” By the time the astrogator looked up, the object Jeremy had seen was no longer there.

  "I saw something right at the edge of the screen, sir, like it was picking up a solid object right at the limits of detection."

  "I've already told you, and you've already seen that this star has no planets. Don't bother me with stupid questions."