Star One: Neutron Star

by Raymond L. Weil

  The initial reports indicated that no serious damage had occurred to the ship, other than a few minor scratches. According to Ty, and from what Steve had heard, the crew had responded well during the brief crisis. Dryson and Stoler were still checking the fusion reactor and their report should be in shortly.

  “Another communication from Earth, Sir,” Margaret Sullivan reported, walking briskly over to Steve and handing him the message. She had stayed over on the next shift to help train a new girl on the communications console.

  Steve took the message and, after reading it, frowned over its contents. More unwelcome news! It was from Tim McPhryson down on Earth. The message said that Senator Farley was getting suspicious that something significant was going on and asking a lot of pointed questions. The president didn’t know how much longer she could delay before Farley figured everything out. She would have to make a public statement of some kind soon, possibly in just a few days.

  Even more astronomers on Earth had detected the neutron star. So far, the leading governments had been able to squelch the information from hitting the news services, but the rumors were already beginning to fly. Steve knew that the sooner they could get the Jupiter Probe launched, the better off they would be. Once launched, Farley would be powerless to do anything to stop it from completing its mission.

  “Lieutenant Commander Williams is on the com for you, Sir,” reported Margaret, having returned to her station.

  “Thank you,” replied Steve, putting on his miniature headset and thumbing on a switch, establishing contact with the Space Platform.

  “Commander?” Williams asked.

  “Go ahead, Todd. How are the repairs coming?” inquired Steve, feeling concerned about the ship.

  “It could have been a lot worse,” Todd replied levelly. “We almost have the grapples back in place. We have two of Andre’s programmers checking into the ion drive program to find the flaw. I also have a group of techs in the ship tracing down every circuit and computer chip connected to the drive. We should know something soon. Does Christy still want us to attach the SRBs later tonight? It will be mid third shift now before we can begin. Everything is ready for installation, but I would like to finish our system checks first. I can have a crew lined up if it’s still a go.”

  Steve looked down at the message he was still holding in his hand. “Go ahead and schedule it, Todd. We need to have that ship ready to go as quickly as possible. If you need additional personnel, let me know. I can send some over from Star One.”

  “We can handle it, Sir,” Williams replied, confidently. “Let Christy know about the change in schedule. I know she wanted to monitor the installation of the SRBs from Main Control.”

  “I’ll take care of it,” replied Steve, signing off.

  Taking one last look at the Jupiter Probe on the main screen, Steve turned Main Control over to the second shift duty officer, Lieutenant Commander Miguel Hernandez, and left to go find Christy. Glancing at his watch, he noticed that it was nearly 19:30, so she would probably be in the main cafeteria eating. He could certainly use her company.

  He had been avoiding the signals that Christy had been subtly sending out recently, partly because he wasn’t sure how to read them or exactly what they meant. Women were so hard to understand. He found Christy so damned attractive at times anyway. They were going to have to have a long talk very soon after things calmed down some. He suspected it wouldn’t take much to take their friendship to the next more intimate level. However, he wondered if that would be wise in their current situation.

  -

  When Christy entered the cafeteria, the first people she saw were the Grays and Kathleen Preen sitting together at a table in conversation. Smiling to herself, she noticed that tonight Kathleen had on a blouse that fit snugly around her neck. The black blouse was almost sheer, revealing most of her breasts. Two darker patches of material strategically placed just barely hid the more intimate areas from view, and Christy doubted it would even cover those if Kathleen were to bend over much.

  I wonder if I dressed like that if I could get Steve’s attention, she thought as she filled her plate. Threading her way through the other tables she made her way to where her friends were sitting.

  “Mind if I join you?” asked Christy, stopping at the empty chair separating John and Kathleen.

  “Hello, Christy,” Julie said brightly, gesturing for Christy to take the empty chair.

  “What was going on with the Jupiter Probe earlier today?” asked John, trying his best not to look to closely at the front of Kathleen’s blouse. “I understand that they fired up the ion drive while still connected to the Space Platform.” Why did she always dress so damn provocatively? “I understand that there was a problem with the test.”

  “Just a computer problem, nothing major,” Christy responded evasively, not wanting to discuss the Jupiter Probe too much.

  “We were all thrilled to hear that Ty has been named Mission Commander,” Julie broke in, smiling at Christy.

  “How are things going down on level six?” asked Christy, knowing how to get off the subject quickly. Julie loved to talk about her most recent projects.

  “Great,” Julie replied enthusiastically, her eyes lighting up. “We have all the habitats pretty well established. We’re growing enough food in the hydroponics sections to feed the entire station, if everyone would become vegetarians.”

  “I absolutely love all the fresh vegetables,” replied Christy, smiling. “It has made a wonderful addition to our cafeteria food.”

  “And Daryl Jensen can do wonders with it in his restaurant,” Kathleen added with a contented grin.

  “I can imagine how pleased Daryl was to receive the fresh vegetables,” responded Christy, picturing the French chef.

  “He was highly excited,” Kathleen responded with a nod. “It helps to lower his costs and has allowed him to expand his menu. He is already suggesting other vegetables he would like to see us grow.”

  “We are trying to raise catfish in some specially controlled ponds with the new growth hormones that the labs have recently come up with,” Julie continued with a pleased look upon her face. “We can grow a fish from a fingerling to nearly two pounds in a little over twelve weeks. If the project is successful, we could be furnishing over 500 pounds of fish per week for the cafeterias. But several men that I know of had better keep their fishing rods put away,” she added threateningly, glancing at John.

  John turned slightly red, but the idea of sneaking down and catching several of those large catfish was intriguing. He would have to discuss it with Ty. They would have to figure out how to get around the monitoring systems, though. He would also have to order some more fishing equipment from Earth. Perhaps he could have it sent up on the next supply shuttle.

  “Of course, Jensen heard about what we have been doing with the fish,” added Kathleen, leaning forward slightly to reach for a slice of bread, allowing even more of her right breast to show. “He wants us to raise him some flounder, swordfish, salmon, and the list goes on and on.”

  Christy knew that Julie and Kathleen were extremely close friends, and Kathleen’s flirting with John never seemed to bother Julie at all. If anything, Christy knew Julie found it humorous, knowing how awkward it made John feel at times.

  “Where’s your new friend, Jennifer Stone, tonight?” Julie asked Kathleen, knowing that the two had been together the night before. “I would like to meet her. We could sure use Teela’s help right now.”

  “She’s seeing Martain Blackwater tonight about our Teela problem. She believes that Teela needs a psychiatrist of all things,” replied Kathleen, knowing how strange it sounded.

  “A psychiatrist!” Christy exclaimed with an odd look crossing her face. “What can Blackwater do with Teela? He doesn’t have any computer background.”

  “She may be on the right track though,” Julie interjected, thoughtfully. “We all know that recently Teela has been acting almost like a child. Maybe she does need some typ
e of professional guidance. I know that I could sure use her back online in her full capacity. It’s all we can do to keep the habitats functioning properly without her help.”

  Julie took a bite of her food, noticing out of the corner of her eye that John was staring at Kathleen, almost petrified as one of Kathleen’s breasts was in plain view as she reached for the butter. Smiling inwardly to herself, Julie knew she would have to thank Kathleen for putting John in the right frame of mind for what she had planned for later. A little extra stimulation never hurt anybody, she thought, just as long as it was looking and not touching.

  “Mind if I join you?” a familiar voice spoke behind Christy, electrifying her.

  Turning her head, she saw Steve standing behind her with a plate piled high with mashed potatoes, gravy, and what looked like pepper steak.

  “Have a seat,” she murmured, trying to keep her voice calm, watching as Steve pulled up a chair from an adjoining table and sat down between Julie and her.

  “We were just talking about Jennifer Stone and how she has asked Blackwater for some help with Teela,” continued Christy, trying to sound casual.

  “I heard about that from Andre earlier,” Steve said, taking a bite of mashed potatoes and gravy. “Andre is quite impressed with Ms. Stone. He seems to think that she may have already solved a big part of our Teela problem by downloading some special AI laws of hers into Teela’s core. Andre wants to begin restoring Teela to full duty tomorrow to see what happens.”

  “I could definitely use Teela’s help to monitor the ecological habitats,” Julie said hopefully, letting out a long sigh. “We are having a tough time monitoring everything and making the adjustments ourselves. It’s really taxing my people. We’ve gone to working twelve-hour shifts just to stay caught up. There are just too many things we are trying to do.”

  “Have you talked to Jennifer about that yet?” asked Kathleen sitting up a little bit straighter and making sure that nothing showed. “About restoring Teela to full duty?”

  She didn’t feel quite at ease showing so much of her body around Steve, especially knowing how Christy felt. It had always been obvious to her that Christy was carrying a torch for the commander.

  “Not yet,” replied Steve, noticing without too much surprise what Kathleen was wearing. He was glad Christy didn’t dress like that or he would be in serious trouble. “I was going to visit with her in the morning to see what she thinks. We truly do need Teela back online as quickly as possible.”

  The group continued their casual dinner conversation, finishing their meal and spending several minutes reminiscing about the earlier days on the station. That was before they had even considered growing their own food or setting up the ecological habitats. After the meal, Steve walked Christy back to her quarters.

  “Todd’s going to attach the SRBs tonight on third shift. If you’re too tired, I can monitor it,” volunteered Steve, knowing that Christy had already put in a long day and didn't want her to wear herself out. For that matter, they both had.

  “No, I’ll take care of it,” Christy responded wearily, knowing she was in for another long night. She hated working the late shift, but occasionally her job called for it. “Lieutenant Commander Hastings can notify me just before they start. I can still catch a few hours of sleep, and I can get some rest tomorrow. I know how important it is to get the ship ready.”

  “We got a message from Tim McPhryson earlier tonight,” added Steve, regarding her with a measuring glance and noting how tired she looked. Taking the message out of his pocket, he handed it to her.

  Taking the message, Christy read it, and a slight scowl went across her face.

  “Farley!” she exclaimed with aggravation creeping into her voice. “I was hoping we could get the mission launched before he found out. There’s no way we will ever convince him there’s a potential danger out there!”

  “I don’t think we have anything to worry about yet,” Steve replied as they reached her quarters. “Tim believes they can put him off for at least a few more days.”

  “I sincerely hope so,” replied Christy, shaking her head.

  “We won’t be able to keep the Jupiter Probe’s test flight to the Moon a secret,” Steve continued. “The launch will be visible from Earth and will raise a lot of questions. The ion trail from the Jupiter Probe will look like a comet. Anyone with a small telescope or even a decent pair of binoculars will be able to see it. We even had a few inquiries from Earth today about the ship’s drive test. Several astronomers noticed the drive tail from the test firing. We explained that we were running some routine tests and that it was nothing to worry about.”

  “I was afraid we would get a few questions about that,” Christy said not too surprised that the test firing had been noticed.

  “We have always allowed our people free access to Earth communications,” Steve continued with a pained look on his face, not pleased with what he was being forced to do. “I plan to cut that off when the test flight is made. I’ll tell our people it’s for security reasons and will only last for a few days. We won’t reinstate it until after the ship is launched on its real mission. Mase is going to do the same thing at Tycho City, and we already have a communications blackout at Farside.”

  “What about Earth itself?” Christy broke in, shaking her head ominously. “How are they going to respond to a communications blackout? It’s bound to raise questions that we don’t want to answer. They’re going to detect the ship when it leaves the platform. How do we deal with those questions? Also, this test flight isn’t scheduled. NASA knows nothing about it. We’re going to be bombarded with a thousand questions, and there are going to be a lot of unhappy people.”

  “We’ll tell them that it’s a special shuttle mission carrying some new experimental subterranean mapping equipment to scan the Moon for minerals. We will also add that we are testing a new type of shuttle fuel. That should hold them for a day or so.”

  Nodding, Christy palmed her door open and turned to face Steve. “If anyone turns a spectrograph on the ship’s drive emissions, they will know we have launched an ion powered ship. There’s no way we can keep this a secret on the station much longer, or on Earth either. When we launch the Jupiter Probe on its shakedown flight to the Moon, everyone on the station will know we’ve launched the ship. Some people down on Earth will figure it out also. They won’t believe it’s a shuttle.”

  “I know, Christy,” replied Steve, stepping closer. “We just need a few more days. We will launch the Moon flight and, once they get back, get the ship ready for their real mission as quickly as possible. There’s nothing Senator Farley can do to stop us, not as long as the president is supportive of what we’re doing.”

  “I hope you’re right, Steve,” replied Christy, feeling acutely aware of Steve’s closeness. “There are just too many unknowns in our future right now.”

  Steve was quiet for a long moment, gazing at Christy. “When this neutron star mission is finally launched, you and I need to have a long talk,” Steve ventured nervously, noticing for the first time the perfume she had on and just how enticing Christy was standing there so close to him.

  Without hesitating, he leaned forward and gently kissed her. He could feel her momentary shock and was surprised when she recovered and pressed herself against him and held him tightly almost trembling. Her soft breasts were pressed firmly against his chest. They both became lost in a warm, passionate embrace before Steve pulled back, his pulse hammering. He couldn’t believe what he had just done. Now was not the time for him to lose control. The next few days were just too important!

  “I have to get back to Main Control,” Steve stammered as he turned and hurried down the corridor, feeling surprised at how heated Christy’s response had been.

  Christy looked after him as Steve walked away. She felt shocked at what had just transpired and by the implications and emotions that had rushed through her. It had been spontaneous, neither had planned it, but it had happened.

  He
actually kissed me, Christy thought, and I kissed him back! With a growing smile, she entered her quarters feeling much more energetic and happier than she had a few minutes before. Maybe things would turn out for them after all, she thought.

  -

  Steve returned to Main Control slightly startled at what had happened. He knew they both had hidden feelings, but this was the first time that either had lost control over themselves. He knew the pressure they were both under was affecting them.

  On review, he didn’t regret it. Maybe it was time for them to come more out into the open anyway. They could both use each other’s support right now. Let’s just get this mission launched and then we'll see, he thought.

  “What is the current status on the Jupiter ship?” Steve asked Lieutenant Commander Hernandez as he took his seat at the main control console. He looked up at the large viewscreen, which was still focused on the Space Platform.

  “Lieutenant Commander Williams reports that they have found the problem with the drive,” Miguel responded. “It wasn’t a computer problem after all, it was a hardware problem. When the drive was activated a conduit melted, burning several wires into at a junction box. Unfortunately, one of those wires connected the flight computer to the ion drive.”

  “I guess we were lucky it happened during the drill and not during the test flight,” replied Steve, shaking his head. He knew they had been extremely fortunate.

  “In addition, the emergency backup system had a bad computer chip in it preventing it from activating,” the lieutenant commander continued. “Repairs have been completed, and Lieutenant Commander Williams has a large crew of techs checking the entire ship. He has ordered the replacement of all the computer chips from a specific lot and serial number. Todd says that many of our problems the last few weeks have involved this same chip. He plans on pulling them all out and replacing them tonight.”