Barrington addressed the young lieutenant. “She’s a work of art, David,” he said.
“Yes, sir. She sure is. She needs a lick of paint, mind you, and we’ve got some issues with FTL ring deployment. The architecture of The Agathon was designed so that its symmetry facilitated the transition of the hull smoothly from normal space to faster than light speeds, with as little stress as possible to the outer hull.
“As you know, sir, the relatively large surface area of the ship was causing an odd mass variable during gravimetric simulations,” Chavel said. Barrington nodded.
“The problem is the radial alignment of the FTL ring when it reaches full rotation,” he continued. “It creates its own mass in the middle of the space time singularity, so we have to adjust the rotations per second by a millisecond or so to allow for the effect. Otherwise the stress on the hull might tear the ring clean off the ship.”
Barrington sat back in his seat. “A millisecond, huh?” he said, smiling. Chavel looked back up from the image of the rotating ship and reciprocated.
“Yes, sir,” he said.
“I think I can live with that, Lieutenant.”
Chavel nodded. “I thought you would, sir. We can’t get a full test done until we can lock up the hull on that aft section,” he said, pointing to the unfinished part of the craft.
“Where are we at on that?” asked Barrington. Chavel blew a sigh out.
“Eighteen to twenty-four months at least, at this rate. We are getting heat from Jycorp on our latest personnel request. Seems there’s politics in play on the flight crew allocation. Until we can get confirmation on the last batch, we’re gonna be waiting on the remainder of the hull alloys.” Barrington nodded and tapped a command into the display pad, and the ship sank back into digital oblivion. He sat back in his chair and addressed the young man.
“Been quite the year, hasn’t it?”
He smiled. “Yes sir, it has.”
“David, I realise you have been under tremendous stress and I want you to know that I am not in any way unsympathetic to the weight that has been thrust on your shoulders. I have been forced to improvise in order to build this little world of ours and also try and spearhead the greatest leap our civilisation has ever attempted. I am not sure I have ever thanked you properly for the sacrifices you have made, not only for me but for the colony.” He paused and looked at the surprised expression on the young man’s face
“I owe you a great debt, David. If Jennifer were here today she would agree with me. I just wanted to express that to you, as I thought it important.”
“It’s my honour, sir,” he replied, shifting somewhat uncomfortably in his seat.
“I am concerned about my daughter, David.” Chavel raised an eyebrow.
“How so? She seems to fit in very well, no?”
“You don’t have daughters, do you, Lieutenant?” Barrington returned with a light smile.
Chavel reciprocated, “No, sir. How can I help?”
“She is becoming increasingly isolated. Much like her mother used to be. Forgive me for being so blunt, but how well do you know her?”
Chavel shifted in his seat. “Not well, sir. She seems to shy away from conversation. We’ve talked. She’s bright and very capable. She seems guarded, but if she is having difficulty she seems to hide it well.”
The commander contemplated the young man’s words. “Thank you, Lieutenant. That will be all.” Chavel stood and collected the pad off the desk
“Anything I can do, sir,” he replied as he made his way to the door. It slid open with proximity and the young lieutenant made his way into the corridors. Barrington’s thoughts wandered as he leaned back in his chair, once again turning to face the exterior view of the glowing colony. His eyes drifted towards the observatory, as the peace of the moment weighed heavily on his eyes. He began to drift into unconsciousness.
The smell of freshly cut grass on a summer’s day fills his senses. It is Mars. But different. Alive with lush green landscape. He feels the soft ground beneath his feet and the sun’s warm rays on his face. He looks up and sees his wife across the field in her colonial jumpsuit, back to him.
“Jennifer,” he shouts.
The silence and bliss between the two of them is palpable, as they stare at each other across the open field. Scattered throughout the landscape are a variety of forests and streams now teeming with life. Overhead the skies are alight with broken cloud formations, splitting the Martian sunlight into beams of striking colours. The sounds of life on this new Earth drown the senses. They are separated by a quiet flowing river, which flows effortlessly over the uneven ground. Light breezes play with her hair, as the warm glow of the distant sun warms their faces. It is a happy moment. He never moves towards her. As if they glance at each other across some impassable terrain. She mouths something to him. Every time the same. He can’t quite make it out.
It looks like, “I love you.” She repeats it in slow motion over and over, always smiling. He begins to hear the faintest sound of a woman’s voice being carried on the wind. Jennifer’s voice begins to echo in his ears. The words are not, “I love you.”
She is softly saying, “I’m melting.” It is the moment right before she begins to sink. A pool of black oil like fluid forms beneath her feet.
Barrington calls to her. “Run, Jennifer,” he cries. She looks on calmly, still gently smiling as she slowly begins to submerge into the black. Barrington screams to her to get out. She pays no heed. Her smile remains as her torso and upper body begin to submerge. “Please, Jennifer! Don’t go.” She closes her eyes calmly and accepts the black fluid into her mouth. Still smiling.
Barrington howls, “No!”
He woke suddenly, looked around the room finding it empty and dark. As he wiped away a tear the holo-comp bleeped, indicating an incoming call.
“This is Barrington, go ahead.”
The voice on the other end was shaky and frantic, “John, this is Tyrell. We have an emergency. I think you should come to the observatory immediately.” Barrington’s heart jumped.
“What’s going on, Doctor, is Carrie all right?”
“Yes, John, she’s fine, but there is something happening to the signal. Please come down here. I am declaring a colonial emergency.”
2
Main Observatory
Gamma Event T plus ten minutes
John Barrington stared at the viewing chamber. The view had been taken out to encompass the debris field. He rested his hand on Carrie’s shoulder. Tyrell was hunched over a console, punching in various commands. Watching the ever-expanding flotsam of rock as it floated serenely outwards into the black of space, held a strange meditative quality to it. The orbiting arrays, satellites and space stations had been obliterated in the blast. The shockwave had carved a chunk out of the orbiting moon and it was left alone without its owner like a wounded and abandoned pet. Carrie had not spoken since her father had arrived at the observatory. She seemed unable to take her gaze from the viewing chamber.
“I don’t understand, Father, it was right there. I was watching it all night. It was so alive. Am I dreaming?” The commander lowered himself to meet her eye level and glanced back at the floating rock, still grasping at his own straws and in awe of the devastation.
“I don’t know, Dice,” he said, calling her by her childhood nickname. “Why don’t you go back to the habitat ring and try to get some sleep. Doctor Tyrell and I have a lot of work to do before the rest of the colony wakes up and finds out what has happened.”
Carrie was quick to respond, “I cannot, Father. I have to stay here with you. Please, I have to stay with you.”
He turned his gaze back to the viewing chamber. “Okay, Dice. I could use your help anyway. I need to talk to Tyrell for a moment. Do me a favour and contact Lieutenant Chavel on comms. Tell him to come to the observatory immediately, for a briefing.
Don’t tell him what has happened here until we figure this thing out, okay? I also need you to get a hold of Doctors Meridian and McDonnell. Tell them all to get here quickly, but do it calmly, Dice.”
Carrie’s face blushed slightly at the mention of the lieutenant’s name. Her father knew that response well, but he did not have time to get into it with her.
“Yes, Father.” She paused. “I’ll get on it.” She stood from her perched observer chair, went to a nearby workstation and sat behind one of the computers. He watched her. John, I love you, save Carrie.
“John?” Tyrell’s voice said from behind him. “We should really think about where we are at. Take stock of the next steps. There are decisions to be made.”
The commander acknowledged the doctor with a small nod and made his way over to meet him at his workstation. He took a seat next to Tyrell, while keeping an ear tuned into his daughter’s voice as she tried to reach the others. He addressed Tyrell in his soft monotone.
“Talk to me, Tyrone, what the hell happened here tonight? Why wasn’t there any warning?” Tyrell closed his console down and addressed the commander directly.
“Commander, we were just attacked. It was unprovoked. There was no warning. The signal changed without provocation and without the slightest indication of any new or unusual cosmic events. We have been tracking this thing for over a hundred years and, for whatever reason, the species that created the signal and the structure on Phobos have unilaterally decided that today is the day to end our race. Other than the data collected from our array and the obvious change in the signal to a concentrated Gamma burst, I have no other information to give you at present. Right now we need to focus on one thing and that is to find out who, if anyone, has survived.”
Barrington looked back at his daughter and tried to compose his thoughts. “Jesus Christ,” he said to himself. “Okay, Doctor, continue to liaise with Tosh. I am going to try to raise Jerome Young and see what we can do from here. I need you get a visual on The Agathon, to see if there is any damage or effect from the Gamma pulse on any of the ship’s systems or personnel currently on the vessel, or on an EVA.”
He turned to one of the consoles and tapped in a few commands.
“Computer, initiate comms with Charly Boyett on The Agathon.”
Flight Officer Charly Boyett’s voice came over the comms, “This is Boyett.” Her strong tone sounded well beyond her thirty-one years and held an assuredness that Barrington took great comfort in.
“Charly, status report,” Barrington said.
“I’m currently on the flight deck, knee deep in fibre optic cable, sir. The number two plasmonic field generator just won’t play ball with us up here. It keeps generating random ion field formations around the secondary wave guide conduits. We have to nail it down or it could cause the FTL to cascade during our first flight, and we really don’t want that, sir. How’s everything down there?” The sounds of plasma torches could be heard in the background as she spoke.
“Charly, we have a situation down here.” He stopped for a moment to gather his thoughts. “Have you got the main sensors active yet on the flight deck?”
“No, sir, not yet. It’s a real mess up here at the moment to be honest,” she said.
“Okay, Charly, I need you brace yourself for this. The Earth has just exploded in space. It’s gone.” There was silence.
“Sir, can you repeat, please? It’s quite loud up here and it sounded like you just said the Earth had exploded.”
“Charly, that’s confirmed. I need you do a full systems and hull integrity check. Get the forward array up and running and link it up. Start monitoring. I need you focused, Lieutenant, there are going to be a lot of frightened people up there and down here when this breaks. I know what you left behind and I know what it took for you to come here, but find strength and use it.”
The commander’s voice was locked into the steady elevated rhythm of a trained leader and he made sure to leave no room for hesitation or doubt in his voice. In a catastrophic event, the mind needed direction to stop it from breaking down. Sometimes a strong voice was all it took.
There was silence on the comms then Charly’s voice piped up above the noise. “Silence on the deck, everybody shut up!” The ambient noise ceased immediately. Charly continued, “John, is this some sort of joke, a drill or something? Because if it is, it’s not that funny, sir.”
The commander couldn’t help but admire her candid nature. He had taken a shine to her early on when they had first met and allowed a certain level of informality among those under his command, up to a point. He found that it had strengthened loyalty. He took a moment and softened his voice.
“Charly, this is not a drill. Listen to me. All we know down here is that there was a change in the signal some time ago, which fired a Gamma ray burst into the Earth’s core. We’re picking up the pieces down here. I wish I could tell you more but I don’t have it right now. You are in command up there, I need you to listen and act. I’ll be in touch shortly but right now, we’re at Colonial Emergency level 1. Just keep your team in check and focus.”
There was a moment of pause and then a clear response.
“Yes, sir.” He could hear her voice beginning to tremble but closed off the comms.
“Barrington out.” The screen went blank and Barrington was left looking at a sombre reflection. He looked up and saw David Cheval standing in the doorway.
Carrie hadn’t mentioned anything to the young lieutenant on the comms, but she had made herself very clear that he was needed to be there quickly. Now standing in the doorway he acknowledged both the commander and Tyrell, who hadn’t noticed that he had arrived. He then glanced at Carrie and gave an involuntary smile. She had grown used to the wave of feeling that filled her mind when he was in close proximity. It was a feeling of attraction she encountered amongst most men, but it was particularly strong with this one. She reciprocated his gesture with a small wave and turned her attention back to her console. The magnitude of what had just occurred was too confusing to combine with the urges of a clearly passionate attraction from a young officer, even if he was a handsome one. Her obvious blush responses were not lost on Chavel, as he made his way over to her father.
She observed him as they shook hands and spoke. She began to sense the changes in the officer’s mind as the news was being broken. Grief and panic were old friends to Carrie and she didn’t need to sense emotions to recognise them but once her mind was open, it was hard to not to let them in from others. Chavel held himself with composure and strength, but inside his mind was in turmoil. The warm feelings she had sensed moments ago were gone. Shock released the floodgates of every feeling all at once and Carrie’s sensitivity to them was increasing on a daily basis. She had begun exercises in segmenting her thoughts from others, out of fear of having her own mind washed away in other people’s thoughts. It had become a terrifying thought that somehow her own consciousness could be washed away by thoughts of the other colonists. It was her father who had given her the idea.
“Build a home for your thoughts,” he had told her one night when she couldn’t sleep. “Somewhere they can be safe. Build a house in your mind with impregnable walls. It will be your own fortress. That is where you go when others flood your thoughts. Don’t open the door, Carrie. Not to anyone. Not to anyone!” The fortress she had constructed in her mind had begun as a steel cube structure a thousand feet high, with a door ten feet thick, only accessible via a thin rope bridge over a bottomless ravine a mile wide. It had been a rather extreme version of what her father had been talking about, but it served its purpose well. The rope bridge could be retracted at will, leaving enemy thoughts no chance of getting across. She had even added weapons to the exterior. Large plasma cannons, each with their own compartment, scattered themselves along the walls of the cube. She had even test-fired them one night. It had been a spectacular show of force, as they tore through the fa
bric of her mind with power and ferocity. She had found it empowering and had been impressed at her ability to create such a devastating show of force, albeit an imaginary one. The years had changed her fortress, as she grew surer of what it had represented. The steel cube had been replaced with an ancient Earth castle, complete with moat and drawbridge.
Her father and Chavel were deep in conversation. The lieutenant’s attention was focused on one of the screens, as her father gave instructions. She turned her attention back to her task.
“Open comm to Doctor Meridian, please.” She spoke to the computer which responded in kind.
“One moment, please.” There was a long pause, then a sleepy female voice answered.
“Yeah... go ahead, hello?”
“Doctor Meridian, this is Carrie. I apologise if I woke you.” A yawn.
“Not at all, kiddo, how are you. What’s up? You discover the meaning of life yet?” Carrie smiled. She was very fond of the doctor and she of her.
“Not yet, Chase. I think that just got a little harder, to be honest. Are you able to come to the observatory, please? Something has happened. My father and Doctor Tyrell are already here and it is important that you come right away.”
Meridian didn’t hesitate in her response. “Of course, I’ll be there shortly. Let me just get dressed, sweetie. See you in a mo. Meridian out.”
The Agathon: Book One Page 5