Ringship Discretion

by Sean League

  She turned and looked at him. "Well, we are still here, aren't we?"

  Ben waved to the captain to follow. "Let's get down to the engine room and see if it just blew the breakers again."

  When they got to the panel, they scanned down it. "Nope. They are all still set....crap...that's means it's a different problem."

  The captain looked a little worried. "Do we need to go outside and take a look?"

  Ben turned and pulled a panel off. "Not yet, let me make sure it's not something inside first."

  Amelia came over the intercom. "I can't get any kind of reading at all on that plate."

  Ben put the panel back on. "Well, it has to be in the new communication cables then." He then squeezed behind some racks and disappeared.

  A few minutes went by and Attie jumped when Amelia said his name. He turned to find her approaching him. "What are you doing?"

  She said softly "Attie. If we can't get the drive working, we have about three months of food. That would only get us a few light hours. Not far enough to get anywhere. Even if we grow food, we won't be able to last."

  Attie swallowed. "I know. That's why we have to get it fixed. Ben is.." Ben interrupted. "Ben is what?" They turned and smiled at him. He looked back with a strange look on his face "I think we are all aware of the "gravity" of the situation." Amelia and Attie both rolled their eyes.

  Ben wiped his face. "OK, I can't find any problem back there. It has to be on the outside."

  Attie nodded. "OK, then lets get out there and fix it, because I'm finding this part of space to be a bit boring."

  Ben nodded as he walked by. "Yeah..let's try and go somewhere more interesting."

  A few minutes later the captain and Ben were suited up. Ben opened the inner airlock door and put his tool bag in. Attie turned with his helmet in his hand and kissed Amelia. Then he and Ben stepped through and closed the inner door.

  Ben hit the depressurization button. Both Attie and Amelia stared at each other through the airlock window. They both had a strange feeling of finality as they watch the other's face. When the airlock reached 40 kPa, Attie gave a smile and put his helmet on. Ben checked it and slapped him on the back. Attie was still staring at Amelia when Ben cleared his throat into the mic. Attie turned and checked Ben's suit and gave him the thumbs up. With that, Ben began to depressurize the airlock to zero. When the pressure hit zero, Ben opened the outer door. Amelia came over the radio. "Be safe."

  Attie turned back and saw her hand against the airlock window. He radioed back while raising his hand. "We will."

  As the captain climbed out of the airlock and rounded the ship he looked around trying to find the Sun. He saw Orion and most of the usual constellations, although some of them, like the Big Dipper were not quite right. Ben asked. "Are you coming?"

  The captain looked across the hull at him. "Yeah, I just can't find the Sun. Guess we're just too far away."

  Ben stopped and look out at the deep blackness. The vast nothingness made him feel uneasy and he turned back toward the ship. "OK. Let's get this done." He proceeded along the bottom of the hull to the plate and latched himself to an anchor point. "Here it is. This one." He looked up to see the captain still looking out into space. "Hey, Captain. You coming?"

  The captain looked over at him. "Oh, yeah."

  Ben knelt down onto the hull and looked under the plate. "Ahah!"

  The captain and Amelia both said at the same time. "What? Did you find something?"

  Ben replied "Yeah, the cable connector cracked and the cable was just floating free. Probably what caused the problem back on Oberon too, but we just couldn't see it then."

  The captain's hand touched Ben's shoulder and he bent down to take a look. "Something we can fix?"

  Ben nodded. "I don't have this kind of crimping tool, but all we really have to do it keep this cable in the hole. Hell, we could just duct tape the damn thing in there, but we should probably use something a little more secure." He grabbed the cable and was about to plug it in, but stopped. "Now, Amelia, this thing is powered down. Right? I don't want to plug this in and find the two of us floating here by ourselves."

  She responded. "Of course. I shut the whole system down once I couldn't get any telemetry from the plate."

  Ben looked at the captain. "OK. Here is goes." He plugged in the cable and held it in place. Nothing happened.

  Then Amelia came over the comm. "OK. I can see the plate. I will have to run a calibration sequence on it again, but it looks good."

  Ben smiled. "Great. So, I'll just stay out here and hold this cable in until we get there."

  The captain reached into the tool kit and pulled out some tie wraps. "Here, can we just use these?"

  Ben shrugged. "Sure, they will work as good at anything, but hand me the purple ones. They are made for larger temperature extremes."

  Ben held the connector in while the captain tie wrapped it in place. "There. Should we cut the extra off?"

  Ben shook his head. "No, that will create sharp edges and if they were to slip under vibration, they would be more likely to come off. It looks ugly, but just leave them like that." He pulled on the cable to make sure it was secure. "Good. Hand me a few more. I am going to secure the rest of this cable to this stanchion."

  They worked for a few minutes and Ben gave the thumbs up. Attie hit his comm button. "OK, Amelia, I think we are done. We are coming back in."

  Ben said. "Give me a minute to check out the other plates.." The captain nodded and while Ben checked them, he looked back out into space. He felt a magical wonder. He looked up at the Milky Way's bulging globs of stars and the dark gaps in between. He felt like he could imagine where he was in the disk and felt at one with all that he could see. He thought. "This is my home. My galaxy." He was so lost in thought that Ben's touch startled him. "OK, Boss, let's head back in."

  Ben entered the airlock first and then the captain. As he reached for the door, he paused for one last look before shutting it. "OK. We are in...pressurizing."

  Amelia said "Alright. I am going to turn the drives on and see if I can get them to calibrate."

  Attie responded. "Go ahead. We will be there in a few."

  When the airlock turned green, Ben and the captain took off their helmets. As Ben removed his, he looked at the inner hatch window to see Angela looking back at him. She smiled and he smiled back. The captain saw the looks between them and nudged Ben. "So, I don't see your stuff in the engine room?".

  Ben laughed "It's working out." He turned and winked at Angela as he changed the settings to bring the airlock to full pressure. When the lock turned green once again, Angela opened it and they floated through. She took Ben's helmet and gave him a kiss on the cheek.

  The captain said. "Hey! Where's mine?..Amelia?!"

  She yelled from the cockpit. "Get you ass over here and I'll give it to you!".

  Attie pushed off the wall and flew across to the cockpit, grabbing the back of her chair. She tilted her head back and he kissed her upside down from above. They kept kissing until Attie's feet were on the ceiling and Ben interrupted. "Hey! All I got was a peck on the cheek!"

  Angela pinched his butt through his suit as she floated by. "Maybe you will get more later." Ben turned and eagerly watched her float by.

  Doc spoke up. "Hey! What the hell is this?! Can we see if the ship works and make sure we aren't going to actually die out here in the middle of nowhere?" Helen, feeling the mood of the room, gave him a pinch and he let out a squeak.

  The captain's face detached from Amelia's and he looked at Doc and back at Amelia. "Yeah, maybe we should actually test the ship out."

  She nodded. "Yeah..maybe..." She gave him another quick kiss and turned back to the control panel.

  The captain looked at the crew. "OK. Everyone strap in just in case."

  Once everyone was in place, the captain looked over at Amelia. "OK. Go!" She tapped a few icons and the stars turned deep blue and then violet. She looked over at Attie and smiled.

>   Everyone breathed a sigh of relief and Ben said "Alright. That's fixed. Let's eat!"

  Twenty two days later the whole crew was in the cockpit as the computer got ready to cut power to the warp drive. They all stared out the window at the deep blue star field. Amelia said "3...2...1..".

  Everyone gasped as the large blue white world appeared. Two moons, with their crescent shapes, were easily visible in the distance. The reddish parent star was off to their port and was blindingly bright. They could all feel the warmth as it shown in on them. Amelia quickly adjusted the window and dimmed the star.

  The captain pointed "There. That continent. The reports said it would be the most hospitable."

  Everyone looked at each other in excited disbelief. Amelia switched over to the normal drive and the thirty second alarm went off. She looked up and they all nodded, so she overrode the alarm and began to turn the ship. A third irregular shaped moon appeared off to the starboard. It was much closer than the others and had deep craters all over its surface. She aligned the ship for a descent to the continent. They all watched excitedly as the small moon passed by them.

  Amelia said "Hold on. Bringing us around for the descent." She slowly turned the ship 180 degrees. Attie quickly hit the aft camera control and the new planet appeared on the screen again.

  As they descended through the broken cloud cover, the terrain appeared black and purple with white mountain peaks towering above. In the distance, was the blue look of an ocean. The two large moons were visible just over the clouds, but disappeared as they continued to descend. . "Wow, Attie...it's so beautiful!" She almost giggled. "Where do you want to live? Look over there, it has..."...She stopped mid sentence and the ship started to buffet and shake. Part's of Amelia's panel began to flash red and the alarm sounded. Amelia yelled. "Oh..Shit!"

  Attie with his eyes wide opened looked over at her. "Oh Shit? Oh Shit what?!"

  She yelled. "We lost the panels. I can't slow down fast enough. We are going to burn...dammit!.I'm flipping us..." And with that, they felt the g's as their world suddenly flipped upside down. Attie felt the blood rush to his head and the ground was now suddenly above them and space below. Attie yelled. "What the hell Amelia?"

  She frantically pushed buttons and controls ignoring his request for information. The ground began to take up the entire window and the sky disappeared from view. Everyone began to yell at her trying to figure out what was going on. Amelia yelled back "SHUT UP! I'm Trying to fly this damn thing!" It was suddenly quiet and the only thing they could hear was the rush of wind against the hull.

  The whole crew watched out the window as the black and purple scenery started to become patchy until individual plants could be made out. The ground began to slow. Amelia finally said. "OK. I think I've got it." She didn't say anything else.

  The captain wanted her to clarify, but didn't dare interrupt her again. Large purple trees appeared to grow up out of the ground as they got closer. Eventually the ship stopped about 20 meters from the ground and Amelia looked over at Attie, her face beet red. "Damn, that was not good!"

  He asked "What the hell happened?"

  She pointed to the deck beyond their feet. "The damn plates quit again. But this time it was a different one than the last time. We were going too fast and I wouldn't have been able to slow us down fast enough. We would have burned the plates off and then we would have really been screwed, so I flipped us to use the top plates, which were still working."

  Attie looked out the window. His eyes felt tight from all the blood in his head. "Can we land like this?"

  She said "We could, but we would destroy the upper plates."

  Ben interjected. "Amelia, can we just hover like this, while we fix the bottom plates? Assuming it is the same problem?"

  She nodded, but said. "I can't leave the controls though. It keeps wanting to drift. Whatever we do, we need to do it fast, or my head is going to explode!"

  Attie looked up below him. "Hmmm..shit..how are we going to get out of these seats like this?" Then he heard AJ say "Like this!" He turned his head and AJ was standing on the ceiling.

  AJ said. "I just disconnect one strap at a time and held on to them, then dropped."

  Ben whispered to himself. "Sure. Easy for a young whipper snapper like you."

  Next, Angela was down and she helped Helen who was hanging by her straps. The captain unbuckled his and they helped him get down. Next was Doc.

  Then they all went under Ben. The captain said "OK. Now that nearly all of us are down, we have enough strength to get you."

  Ben said. "Ha ha." And unbuckled his straps. He flipped quickly, but everyone stopped his fall and he gently set down.

  Amelia said "OK. Now get out there and fix this heap. My head is killing me!"

  The captain crawled up to the window. "Can you take us to one of the tall trees? I have an idea."

  She pushed a few buttons and the ship moved toward a huge tree until there was a slight jolt from nudging the trunk.

  The captain looked at Ben "OK. Come on. You too AJ. Grab some carabiners and harnesses"

  They opened the inner hatch door. Ben looked at the pressure gauges. "Its about 20% higher pressure out there, so we need to pressurize the lock."

  The captain shook his head. "No. Amelia, pressurize the whole ship. No point in having a differential between inside and out."

  Ben nodded agreeingly.

  Once the pressure was equalized, the captain grabbed a communicator and put it on his ear. Ben and AJ followed suit. He opened the outer door and looked down. It was about 50 meters to the lush black ground. "Whoa....Amelia, rotate the ship so we can step out onto one of those large branches." The ship rotated until the large branch hit the outer hatch door and it started to scrape. "Whoa! That's good! Stop!" Once it stopped, he clipped his carabiner to a clamp point and looked at Ben and AJ. "Ready?". They nodded and clamped on.

  The captain jumped out onto the branch and once he felt secure, he unclamped himself. AJ jumped next. After that, it was Ben's turn. He jumped, landed on some orange moss like substance and started to slide. He yelled as he accelerated down the branch. He grabbed at some small vines and suddenly stopped, but didn't move. The captain yelled. "You OK Ben?!"

  Ben, still facing down, said in a muffled voice "Yeah. And then while panting said "Just give me a minute." AJ scooted down the branch until he got to Ben. Ben looked up. "I'm good. My muscles are already exhausted and I haven't even done anything yet."

  The captain said. "It's alright. Just take it slow. Remember we haven't been in a gravity environment for over a month. So, no hurry." Amelia interrupted. "The hell there's no hurry! My head is going to explode!"

  Attie leaned down and looked into the cockpit window giving Amelia a smile. She stuck her tongue out at him. Ben said. "Alright. I am detached."

  Attie gave Amelia the thumbs up and she descended until the bottom of the ship was just below them. Attie said. "OK. Come up about 5 meters." The ship rose slowly. "OK...Just a little more...a little more...stop!" Attie jumped onto the bottom of the ship and clamped on.

  Ben was getting his strength back and with AJ's help, he climbed up the limb far enough to drop down onto the ship.

  Attie told Amelia "OK. We are all on the underside now. Give us just a minute to figure out what's wrong."

  Ben stumbled over to the plates and looked underneath them. "Yep! Same thing! This one's broke too. Where the hell did they get these cheap ass connectors!?"

  The captain said. "Well, it looks like our fix is still holding on this one. Maybe we should just do this to all of them."

  Ben nodded. "Hell yeah. I don't want to go through this again!"

  Attie said to Amelia "OK. We are fixing the issue. Should just be a minute. Tell us when you see the plate."

  After a few seconds Amelia said "I got it! Although I am having trouble seeing anything now."

  Ben gave The captain the thumbs up. "This one's done."

  AJ said. "This one too."

 
The captain said to himself. "Well, I guess I better finish this one then." He wrapped the tie wrap and zipped it tight......."Alright, that should do it. Let's get back on the branch and we will rappel down to the ground. Once we are off, you can flip the ship and land her, Amelia."

  The captain walked to the edge of the ship. "Alright. Amelia, I need you to back the ship away from the tree about 2 meters and then lift the ship 2 meters."

  She acknowledged, but didn't pull the ship far enough away before it started rising. The ship caught on the branch and began to lift it while metal scraped and pieces of plant splintered. Attie yelled "Whoa! Whoa! Down!". She moved the ship down and backed out again.

  As she aligned the bottom of the ship over the branch she said. "Sorry, having a hard time concentrating and reading the displays."

  Attie said. "You're doing great. We'll just get off and you can flip her right side up." He signaled to Ben and AJ and they both jumped down. He detached their lines and his, and jumped also. "OK. We are clear! Go!"

  The ship moved 100 meters away from the tree and rose quickly. Attie watched it rise into the sky. Amelia asked if everyone was secure and she quickly flipped the ship.

  Attie saw the ship drop as it flipped. Then it slowed and gently touched down into the small plants 50 meters below.

  Amelia came over the radio. "We're down. Oh my god! My head!"

  Attie responded. "You did awesome! We will be down in a few minutes." He then looked out from his high branch perspective. He could see black and purple vegetation for many kilometers and a large snow capped mountain in the distance. Looking to his left, there was a river that lead to what looked like a large body water. The sky was dark looking and everything had a reddish hue. The new sun looked deep red, like a beautiful sunset, even though it was high in the sky. He could feel its warmth on his face. The air smelled strangely sweet, but with a hint of...he said to himself..."Cumin?"

  Ben asked "What was that Captain?"

  The captain turned. "Oh, nothing. I was just thinking the air smelled like cumin."

  Ben raised his right eyebrow, but thought a minute. "Yeah...It does. Weird. Well, you ready to get out of this tree?"