Star Runner

by Mark McDonough

  Chapter Two – Alexander

  “Crewman Daniels.”

  Alexander looked up, blinking. He’d been engrossed in his readout and hadn’t even heard the door open. Since coming on duty that morning, his focus had been absorbed in analysing the data from the experiment that he’d had running all night. So far, it didn’t look very promising.

  Lieutenant Commander Perry stood in front of him, hands on hips, her daughter, Alana, at her side.

  “Uh, yes, Commander?” Alexander acknowledged.

  “How’s your research going?” Commander Perry asked.

  “Not so good, Commander,” Alexander answered disappointedly.

  “That’s too bad, Mr Daniels, your mother and I both thought your theory looked promising.”

  Alexander gave a half-smile. He reasoned that if the two senior-most scientists on the station thought that his theory was promising, then it might not have been a total waste of time after all.

  “I’d like you to work with Alana for the rest of this shift,” the Commander ordered.

  Alexander glanced across and nodded to his fellow crewman. Alana gave a shy smile before looking down. She was a slim girl with brown eyes and blonde hair, fifteen years old – the same age as he was – and wearing the same dark blue jumpsuit with yellow shoulder pads that all junior crewmen on the station wore.

  “Alana’s due to start her first rotation in the command centre at ten hundred hours. I’d like you to shadow her and show her the ropes. Until then, you can work with Alana in Lab Eighteen.”

  “Yes, Ma’am,” said Alexander.

  “I’ll leave you to it then,” said Commander Perry. She looked over to Alana. “I’ll see you at home tonight, darling. Have a nice day.”

  Commander Perry turned and strode off, her long honey-coloured plait swaying behind her.

  “Give me a sec to shut this down, Alana,” said Alexander as he looked down at his screen and began working his console.

  Within seconds, his screen had gone black and he was swivelling his chair to stand up.

  “Ready,” he said.

  Alexander felt Alana stray slightly behind him as they made their way through the computer lab and to the door. Once out, he turned right, slowing his pace slightly to allow his partner to come up beside him.

  “What have you been working on?” Alexander asked, trying to make conversation.

  Alana blushed, making the freckles across her nose stand out. “Uh, wormholes,” she answered quietly.

  Alexander’s eyebrows almost disappeared into his brown hair.

  “Wormholes?”

  Alana nodded, making her short blonde hair bob around her ears.

  “But all the research says that there’s no evidence to support that wormholes can even exist,” said Alexander.

  “I know, but I’ve been looking into it anyway. Mum. . . uh, Commander Perry says that just because we haven’t found any evidence yet, doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist.”

  Alexander nodded. It sounded a lot like his mum as well. He knew, for instance, that a lot of what they now knew about black holes would never have even been discovered if the space station hadn’t been built in the first place. He guessed that something could come from Alana’s research, but he seriously doubted it.

  It didn’t take long for the two of them to make their way to Lab Eighteen. Alexander followed Alana in as the doors whooshed open. Lab Eighteen was identical to most of the other labs on the station – half a dozen computer stations along the sidewalls, a large screen dominating the far wall and a centre workbench that a dozen people could comfortably stand around.

  At the moment, they had the place to themselves.

  Alana led the way to one of the left hand computer stations and sat down. Alexander snagged a spare stool, wheeled it over and sat beside her.

  “I’ll show you what I’ve been working on,” Alana said as she quickly went through screen after screen of data.

  “Here, this is where I started,” she said moments later.

  Alexander leaned in closer to the screen, interested in spite of himself. He usually focussed on practical science, totally ignoring anything that seemed too outrageous to even be considered as proper science. Wormholes were a perfect example. As were transporters, time-travel and aliens. They made for a great story, but as far as Alexander was concerned, none of them were worth his time worrying about.

  That is, of course, unless you were ordered to study them.

  Alana’s ideas seemed fairly sound to Alexander, at least in theory. Space Station Cygnus had collected a lot of data about black holes and the types of energy that they emitted and especially about how they could possibly be harnessed. She seemed to believe that, based on this information, it was possible that a tunnel or wormhole could be created between two black holes.

  Alana had a couple of theories on how to try to prove that this was actually the case, but short of throwing someone into the black hole and waiting to see if they came out somewhere else, Alexander couldn’t see how any of them would actually work. As Alana continued to elaborate on her theories, he found himself being unexpectedly drawn in to the science more and more.

  “Crewman Daniels, Crewman Perry, report to the Command Centre.”

  Both Alexander and Alana started at the sound of their names. They had been focussed so intently on their discussions of the theory of wormholes that they had completely lost track of time.

  “I’m glad my mum knows me so well,” said Alana shyly, as she worked to save and close down the work they had been doing. “She always gives me a reminder when I’m working on a project. I’d never get anywhere on time if she didn’t.”

  Alexander gave her a sheepish grin. “My mum does that too.”

  They quickly made their way to the nearest turbo-lift, entering in silence. As they rode up, Alexander couldn’t help but give his jumpsuit a couple of tugs to make sure that it was sitting correctly and to run his hands through his brown hair.

  “What station have you been assigned to?” he asked as the ’lift slowed.

  “Communications,” Alana answered.

  Alexander gave a quick nod. That’s where he had started his Command Centre rotation as well. As the doors opened, he automatically scanned the deck. His father was nowhere in sight. Probably in his office, he reasoned. He led the way to the communications console, nodding to Commander Perry as they passed. Relieving the Lieutenant on duty, they quietly sat down.

  Alexander spent the next ten minutes going through the various procedures and protocols with Alana that he had had to learn when he was first given the post six months ago.

  “Work Pod Nine to Control.”

  Alexander recognised the voice of the station’s Chief Engineer, Commander Bradford.

  “Control. Go ahead, Pod Nine,” Alana answered calmly.

  “We’re approaching Section Ten, now. Latching on in two minutes.”

  Alexander knew that his brother Pete was rostered on to work with the Commander this morning. He wondered who was doing the piloting. Watching the monitor that Alana had activated, he saw the Pod rapidly approaching the station. It jerked to a halt before beginning its approach again and then paused. The arms on the Pod extended, before continuing and connecting with the station.

  Six and a half minutes. Alexander figured that that meant that Pete was at the controls.

  “Control, this is Work Pod Nine. We are latched on to the station.”

  “Confirmed, Work Pod Nine. Nicely done, Commander,” Alana replied.

  “It wasn’t me, Control, I’m just a passenger here. It was all Crewman Daniels,” Commander Bradford’s voice came from the speaker.

  “Acknowledged. Well done Mr Daniels,” said Alana, smiling up at Alexander.

  “Uh, thank you, Control,” Pete responded.

  “Will advise when the work has been completed,” said Commander Bradford.

  “Acknowledged. Cont
rol out.”

  Alexander smiled at Alana. She’d done a much better job than he had on his first posting to Communications. But then, he didn’t think you could do much worse than rerouting a message meant for the Captain of the Space Station down to Engineering Sub-Level Three.

  Much of the rest of the shift passed by quietly, merely routing internal communications and allowing communication access for one of the main labs, so when he heard the doors whisper open behind him, Alexander turned to see who had come in.

  He stared. His youngest brother Nick had his upper arm caught in the firm grasp of Lieutenant Kevin O’Lochlan. Alexander couldn’t help but shake his head. Whatever it was that Nick had done this time, it looked like he was going to be in a lot of trouble.

  He frowned as Lieutenant O’Lochlan dragged him across the Command Centre, without even acknowledging Commander Perry who was on duty, a major breach of protocol. They paused briefly outside his father’s door before it opened and they disappeared inside. Alexander couldn’t stop staring at the door. He thought that Nick would have known better than to break Station rules again. And especially not to get caught by O’Lochlan.

  Several minutes later, Lieutenant O’Lochlan stormed out. He didn’t look happy at all. He hoped his dad wasn’t doing anything to annoy him. It was no secret that the Lieutenant hated the entire Daniels family. He’d been overlooked for a promotion to the head of the science department in favour of Helen Daniels when the family had been posted to the Station and his animosity hadn’t abated even after more than two years.

  It took Nick a lot longer to come out of the Captain’s office than Alexander had predicted. As Nick hurried through the Command Centre, Alexander wasn’t sure whether he was grinning or was close to tears. Either way, Alexander was positive that it was going to be very interesting that night once everyone got home.