by David Wiley
CHAPTER 9
The trip back through the wormhole was slightly less nerve-wracking because they now knew what to expect. Of course, there was always the possibility that the wormhole was not a permanent fixture, a nightmare that Solo had brought up in one of their discussions. It did not help when Ernie reminded them of speculations that wormholes were shortcuts through time as well as space. Thoughts of emerging back in the solar system during the age of the dinosaurs made them all a little nervous. "I don't think we're travelling into the future, or I think we would see other spaceships using the wormhole, wouldn't we?" asked Qing. "I mean, this is going to be big."
"I wonder what would happen if two ships collided head-on in the wormhole?" asked Solo. Okay, so now they had two things to worry about, Boris thought.
The end of the wormhole that led to the solar system was approaching when there was a bang from the stern of the Arkhangel and the ship yawed toward the wall of the wormhole. Five voices screamed some variation of "What the hell happened?" while Solo frantically wrestled with the lurching ship.
"It's the Number 5 Engine," he announced.
"We're doomed," Sean moaned.
"It figures," Horst snarled.
Boris glanced nervously at the instruments, but the surprisingly composed voice of his most junior crew member cut through the babble. "Two kilometers to the wall, one point eight klicks, c'mon Solo, one point five klicks, one klick, seven hundred meters-"
Solo slumped back in his seat, sweat pouring down his face.
"Don't let it hit, don't let it hit, don't let it hit," Horst murmured over and over.
"Five hundred meters," Ernie continued after a brief pause. "Six hundred, seven hundred, we're pulling away."
Solo wiped at his face with his sleeve. "Did an emergency shutdown of the Number 2 Engine. Balanced the thrust."
They emerged to find the beacon still there. They were back in the same universe they had left.
"We're back," Boris said.
Qing leaned close and murmured. "Really? That's the best you can come up with? 'We're back?' Captain of the first ship to traverse a wormhole?"
She straightened. "Me, I'm thinking of retiring and opening a nice little bar just for spacerats."
"I'm going to be famous, schoolkids will want to be just like me," Solo nodded.
Sean snarled at Solo, "Not my kids, I'm never gonna let that happen."
"The Navy is so going to regret not offering me a commission," Ernie grinned.
"We're going to be rich," Horst said.
"Well, some of us will do better than others," Solo corrected, chuckling at the puzzled expressions of the others.
Horst smiled a very unpleasant smile. "Allow me to explain. Abasolo and I had an agreement. He programmed the beacon to begin broadcasting less than a day after we entered the wormhole. By now it should have broadcast our wormhole discovery to a certain multicorp, which will file for the discovery. After what we saw on the other end, we should be well-compensated."
"No-o-o," Sean moaned.
"You didn't," Qing said without much conviction.
"Traitorous filth!" Boris glared at the two of them.
Solo cleared his throat. "Actually, Horst, only one of us will be well-compensated. I only included myself on the claim. Sorry, you know how it goes. I-"
With an outraged roar, Horst sprang at Solo, razor-sharp knife in hand.
"STOP!" Ernie screamed, jumping between Horst and Solo and almost getting skewered in the process. It distracted Horst enough for Solo to dive behind the helm station.
"Thanks, Ernie, you naive little fool, for trying to save me, but you should know that I didn't include you either."
"I know," Ernie said.
"Come out from there you little maggot!" Horst snarled.
"Stop it, Horst!" Ernie ordered.
"You knew?" Surprised, Solo peered over the helm station at Ernie.
"Of course," she said.
"What?" Horst's jaw dropped.
Ernie turned to the ship's purser. "Before you disembowel my ex-non-boyfriend, I feel I should mention that I reprogrammed the beacon just before I released it. Sorry, you naive little fool," she shot back at Solo, "but it wasn't too hard to guess what you had planned. Instead of broadcasting your claim, it claimed it on behalf of the Captain and crew of the Arkhangel. I just let you think you were getting away with it so you'd behave."
"You know how much more we would have gotten if we held a secret auction for the multicorps, instead of a measly finder's fee?" Horst asked, incredulous.
"I can guess," Ernie shrugged. "But we'll still do okay this way and all of us will actually live to see it. Besides, this way the wildcatters will be the first to benefit." She winked at Qing as she reached down to pick up Lucky. "That's something I didn't learn from 'Space Patrol: Arcturus.'"
Boris smiled back. "Well done, Miss Borgia, and since it is the Captain's prerogative as to how any prize money should be divided up, let me just say that some of us will do better than others."
Horst cleared his throat. "In my duty as ship's purser, I feel obligated to remind the Captain that, as per the ship's standard charter, subsection 5c, you cannot allocate prize funds to probationary crew members."
Sean frowned. "What did he just say?"
"That Ernie can't have any part of the reward because she has been with the ship less than a year," Solo said.
"That's not fair," Sean clenched his fists.
"It's just so a relative or a noobie can't join a ship and immediately be rewarded without doing any real work," Solo added, his smirk directed at Ernie.
Ernie hugged the cat tightly, her face averted. "Damn, I thought I had it all figured out."
Qing moved to stand behind her. "Boris, you know this isn't right."
Boris sighed. "No, Horst and Solo are correct. The rules are there for a reason. Legally, they could tie things up for quite a while. Hmmm. Just a minute," he reached into a cubbyhole at the command console and extracted a sheet of paper and a pen and started writing.
"You have to be the only person left in the entire solar system that still uses a pen and paper," Solo sneered. "Might as well be painting on the walls of caves."
"You know you can't just give her part of your prize money," Horst pointed out. "That would also be in clear contravention of the charter."
"Here, would you witness this, Qing?" Boris handed the paper and pen over to her.
Qing took and read it. An ear-to-ear grin spread across her face, crinkling the corners of her eyes. "With pleasure, Boris."
"What?" the others asked simultaneously.
Qing signed with a flourish and then showed the paper to Ernie, who read it through her tear-filled eyes. She looked up, puzzled. "You're giving me the cat? Really? I mean, I like Lucky, but..."
Qing's grin became outright laughter as the shock registered on both Horst's and Solo's faces. She patted the girl's shoulder. "Remember I told you how Lucky is listed as crew on the Arkhangel's register? She's been listed that way for what, five years, Boris? That means she is definitely eligible for prize money. I'm sure she'd be willing to share her good fortune with her new owner in return for a few sardines."
Ernie wiped at the tears on her smudged cheeks. "I-I don't know what to say. I don't believe it."
"You'd better believe it," Qing said.
"Yes," Boris added with a huge smile of his own. "After all, this day it's your Lucky!"
Epilogue
"Okay, class, last week we learned about the heroic Saint Vladnitz, who navigated the first wormhole with his loyal crew and the ship's mascot, Lucky the goat."
"Did they milk Lucky? My dad says they probably made cheese from her. Did they make cheese, Miz Corintos?"
Miz Corintos shook her head. "I'm not sure, Garra, they might have. Anyway, this week we are going to talk about Saint Noya, she-"
"-traveled the Universe with her ark of animals, populating all the planets w
ith them so humans would be able to live there." Seraphina interrupted. "Look, I even made a diorama, with her ark to the same scale as it says in the text book. If you'd like you can use it for your lesson, Miz Corintos. Miz Corintos?"
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Thank you for reading my book. If you enjoyed it, please take a few moments to leave a review at your favorite retailer. Plus, look for my other stories set in the same Eichi Testaments Universe.
Thanks again!
David Wiley
Excerpt from Toothless, the sequel to Saint Vladnitz:
...she struggled to focus as Gaucho pointed at the main screen. Baikonur loomed there, spotted with what looked like a pox.
"First time they seem to be in line with us," Gaucho observed.
Ernie thumbed the transmit switch. "Limey, you there?"
"I'm here," he confirmed. "Though I've still got a tough little bit of vacuum welding I need to concentrate on before we can fire up the engine again."
"Gaucho just picked up some solar activity. Looks like the sunspots are lined up with us. How much longer you gonna need?"
"Thirty or forty minutes," Limey answered. "Shit! The brace just bent. Make that forty to fifty minutes."
"I don't think you have that kind of time," Ernie said.
"Especially not with the numbers Boone just handed me," Kat chimed in from her post in sick bay. "Limey, your little stunt with the lead bag cut the badge's radiation exposure in half. The bag's exposure-not yours. You're already outside the allowable annual limit. You need to get back inside."
"No can do, Katie. The star might not send a flare our way. If it does, I'm in danger, but so is the whole ship, right? You'll have even more dead patients."
"Ernie, you have to order him back in," Kat pleaded.
"If you do, it will add quite a few hours to get to the wormhole," Limey pointed out.
"Approximately 8.2 hours," Boone interjected.
"What the man says," Limey sounded amused.
"Ernie?" Kat implored.
Ernie felt like her head was splitting open, a fiery mass. "Do it, Limey. But for God's sake be quick."
"Understood, mon Capitan," Limey signed off.
"Ernie..." Kat's voice had a warning tone, cut short by Ernie's jabbing finger ending the connection.